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FEW WORDS

ABOUT

MUSIC:

CONTAINING

HINTS TO AMATEUR PIANISTS ;

TO WHICH IS ADDED

A SLIGHT HISTORICAL SKETCH

OF THE

RISE AND PROGRESS

OF THE

Ert of ilRuisic,

M. H.

“ Mr. Hiillah’s talent and philanthropy is better employed
in training a thousand tolerable singers than in perfecting
one Lablache. It is better that the many should have some
power, than that one should be aTitaii.” — Fraser’s Magazine.

LONDON;

J, ALFRED NOVELLO, 69, DEAN STREET, SOHO,
AND 24, POULTRY.

1851.

1H>0

DEDICATION.

The circling seasons of the year
Have nearly brought again the day
When you began your stormy way,
Cheer’d by bright hopes, my Mother dear.

How dreary were those months to me ! —
When my mind saw through fancies dark,
Your lone night-wandering little t>ark
Upon the great Atlantic sea.

When welcome tidings came at last,

The letter seemed a friendly voice,
Saying, in silvery tones, Eejoice,

For they are safe, — all grief is past.

Great perils cause us to pass o’er
All lesser woes, and I did yoke
To my heart’s chariot, Joy and Hope,
And dream of flights from shore to shore.

Wild dreams; — we must contented be.

To dwell where’er our lot is cast :

He knows the Future as the Past,

Who died for love of you and me.

M. H.

Fd). 3rd, 1851.

ADVERTISEMENT.

The greater part of this little work has already appeared in
“ The Lady’s Newspaper.” When it had reached the Ninth
Chapter, it was thought advisable to complete the series, and
publish the whole together in one small volume. In furtherance
of this view, some additional chapters on the History of Music
are now included in the work.

The writer ventures to hope that the utility of the practical
hints, with regard to Pianoforte Studies, will bear with it an
apology for many defects in a literary point of view. This little
work might have appeared in a more connected form, had it not
originated in a series of ephemeral communications, commenced
without any idea of its ever taking the shape of a book.

To those friends who have kindly enabled the writer to publish
without delay, her thanks, and the thanks of those for whose
sake such patronage has been bestowed, are very sincerely offered.

Feb. Ist, 1851.

M. H.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

CHAPTER I.

“ All true, all faultless, all in tune.

Creation’s wondrous choir.

Opened in mystic unison.

To last till time expire.” — The Christian Year.

In the last number of The Edinburgh we find a passage which-
we ought not to omit bringing before our fair readers; and,
indeed, we are not sorry to have so good an opportunity of saying
a few words upon a subject which seems strangely neglected in
the periodical literature of the day, considering that a knowledge
of Music is now looked upon as an essential branch of female edu-
cation. The passage we allude to in The Edinburgh^ occurs at the
commencement of the review on “ Shirley.” The reviewer has
been dwelling on the often-debated question, whether the minds
of women are actually of a much lower order than those of men ;
or whether the intellectual inferiority of women arises entirely
from the poverty of their education. This question we will not
enter upon just now, but content ourselves with endeavouring to
throw seme light on the problem the reviewer professes himself
unable to solve, encouraging ourselves with the recollection that
a mouse once enabled a lion to escape from a net. The reviewer,
after showing that one cannot account for female inferiority by
setting it down to want of physical power, “because, in the great
contentions of man with man, it has not been physical strength
which has generally carried the day,” goes on to say, “ It should

A FEW WOEDS ABOUT MUSIC.

further be remembered that it is precisely in that art which de-
mands least employment of physical force, viz., Music, that the
apparent inferiority of women is most marked and unaccountable.
Indeed, Music is, by far, the most embarrassing topic to which
those who maintain the mental equality of the sexes can address
themselves. It is true that, of all kinds of genius, a genius for
Music is the least akin to, and the least associated with, any
other. But, on the other hand, it is an art that is cultivated by
all women who have the least aptitude for it ; and in which, as
far as mere taste and execution are concerned, many more women
than men are actually found to excel. But, as composers, they
have never attained any distinction. They have often been great,
indeed, as performers, whether with the impassioned grandeur of
a Pasta or a Viardot, or with the perfect vocalization of a Lind or
an Alboni ; whether pianists, such as Camille Pleyel ; violinists,
such as Madame Flipowitz, or the little Milanolo ; whether as
organists, or even as trombone-players ! yet in musical compo-
sition they are without rank. We can understand their not
creating the stormy grandeur and tumultuous harmonies of a
Beethoven, since to that height women never have attained in
any art ; but why no one among them should yet have rivalled
the moonlight tenderness and plaintive delicacy of a Bellini is a
mystery to us.” Now let us examine all this. First, we must
enter a protest against some of the assertions made. We cannot
see that, “ of all kinds of genius, a genius for Music is the least
akin to, and the least associated with, any other.” If this were
true, what an extraordinary blunder the ancients made when
they placed the lyre in the hands of Apollo ! Perhaps we may
be charged with bigotry and pedantry for quoting such gone-by
traditions. Nevertheless we cannot but feel that the old Greek
idea of the Muses being sisters was not a mere fancy, but a
matter of fact. All ages and all nations bear witness to it, if we
except a certain class in England which has sprung up within
the last two centuries, — Orpheus and Arion, Miriam, Sappho,
King David, Timotheus, St. Ambrose, the bards of the Celtic

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

and Gothic nations, the Minnesingers, Troubadours, the Min-
strels, the Improvisatori, — behold M^hat a legion of spirits memory
can call up as witnesses to the fact that Music and Poetry are
“ akin ” and closely “ associated ” with each other !

Let us bring forward some more facts. Most of the great
painters who go by the name of the “ old masters” loved Poetry
and Music with an ardour second only to their passion for their
own art. Many of them were actually good poets and musicians.
And then look at the great composers. Do we not observe in
most of them that passionate love of nature and of the beautiful
which belongs to the poet and the painter ? And the poets, do
not they love music ? Listen to Milton : —

*' Lap me in soft Lydian airs,

Married to immortal verse,

Such as the melting soul may pierce
In notes, with many a winding bout
Of linked sweetness long drawn out ;

With wanton head and giddy cunning,

The melting voice through mazes running;

Untwisting all the chords that tie
The hidden soul of Harmony.”

No one but a musician could have written that ; and no one
but a musician can fully appreciate the intense beauty, the thrill-
ing truthfulness, of the two last lines of this common quotation.
And then listen to Handel, when he “ marries immortal Verse ”
to Music, worthy to be its bride : —

“ Let me wander not unseen
By hedgerow elms, on hillocks green ;

While the ploughman near at hand
Whistles o’er the furrow’d land ;

And the milkmaid singeth blythe,

And the mower whets his scythe.

And every shepherd tells his tale
Under the hawthorn in the dale.

Could Handel have actually expressed the landscape by the aid
of melody and harmony with as much fidelity as a painter could
have done with the pencil, unless he had been gifted with an eye

A. FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

for Nature and a soul for Poetry, as well as an ear for Music ?
There is positively scenery in the music of Beethoven, Weber,
and Mendelssohn. Close your eyes when you listen to it, and
your imagination will be filled with landscape. Now you see
craggy mountains, with dark fir-trees ; now verdant plains, with
blue hills in the far distance ; you will hear rushing waterfalls,
or murmuring brooks, or the mighty ocean in all its varying
moods. Sometimes the strain will bring before you early dawn
with “ the lark ” singing at “ heaven’s gate anon it will be
noonday, and you are transported to the shady greenwood, by
quiet streams where water-lilies grow ; now the sounds bring to
you simset’s gorgeous hues ; at another time the dim twilight :
you may hear the sighing of the evening breeze, and see the
stars come out one by one, or watch the moon sailing through
the sky. We do not say that everybody is so fortimate as to
possess the talisman which enables one to enter the Enchanted
Palace of Harmony ; but this we do say, that in nine cases out of
ten, the deficiency arises more from utter want of cultivation of
mind and taste, than from any natural defect of ear. But we
are wandering from the subject immediately under consideration.

The next assertion we have to question is, that Music “ is an
art that is cultivated by all women who have the least aptitude
for it, and in which, as far as mere taste and execution are
concerned, many more women than men are actually found to
excel.” The reviewer is doubtless a great critic in literary
matters, but it is probable he may not be a practical musician ;
at any rate it is unlikely that he should possess that sort of
experience with regard to the musical education of ladies which
alone will enable any one to form a correct judgment on the
subject under discussion. With all due deference, therefore, to
the Edinburgh Review, we must deny that the Art of Music is
“ cultivated by all women who have the least aptitude for it.”
On the contrary, we should be inclined to substitute “very few”
for “ all.” True, every young lady learns to play and sing, by
a eei-tain mechanical process, similar to that by which she

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

acquires dexterity in Berlin-wool work or crochet-knitting.
But is that studying the heaven-descended art of Music ? Is any
knowledge of its principles acquired or even sought, — any insight
into the mysteries of sounds, from which a science is evolved,
whereby the whole heart is taken captive and all its passions
swayed at pleasure ? We might as well suppose that a taste for
poetry and painting was cultivated by the hand-mechanism of
the fair transcriber and copyer of the usual versified and water-
coloured embellishments of an album, purposely exposed for
every one to admire at those idle moments when they are left
without any thing to feel. We cannot allow that, “ as far
as mere taste and execution go, many more women than men are
found to excel.” First-rate female singers we have, no doubt,
quite equal to male singers. But when we come to instrumental
music (which has been called “the propre of the art”), only
contrast the male performers on the pianoforte who follow close
on (their admirers will tell you rival, nay eclipse) the King of
Pianists, Thalberg, with the few female performers who even
approach Madame Dulcken, Mrs. Anderson, and the graceful,
yet spirited, Kate Loder. Nor must one forget the organists
of the cathedrals, college chapels, and great churches. How
many of them are female performers ? The reviewer may have
been thinking of amateurs ; but even here we doubt whether the
preponderance is so great on the side of the ladies as he imagines.
Two-thirds of the young ladies who can rattle through a host of
polkas and waltzes with a brilliant finger, would be completely
posed when they attempted Beethoven or Mendelssohn. When
we come to music of a high class we are inclined to think (taking
into consideration the small number of gentlemen who learn to
play the piano at all compared with the large number of ladies
who do) that the sterner sex will be found to outdo the softer,
even in this branch of the arts. To be fair, too, we must not pass
over the many gentlemen who play the violin, violoncello, &c.,
in a sufficiently musician-like style to be of use in a country Phil-
harmonic concert, whereas there are not many ladies whose

A FEW WOBDS ABOUT MUSIC.

piano performance would stand the test of playing with obligato
accompaniments. And now we can fancy some of our fair readers
inquiring what all this tends to, and whether it is good taste to
make their own paper the organ for obtruding on the ladies of
England, remarks as unpalatable as those made by the Edinburgh
reviewer. We answer, that this unsparing criticism of the musical
attainments of our fair countrywomen is intended to induce them
to cultivate their talent in the right way, and so proving that the
women of the nineteenth century are capable of something higher
than mere mechanical skill in the ai't which is placed under the
patronage of St. Cecilia.

In a future number we propose to point out the causes which
prevent female amateurs in general from obtaining sound musical
knowledge, and its result — pure taste ; and we hope, also, to give
our fair readers some practical hints which may assist them mate-
rially in acquiring solid information with regard to the art in
general, as well as fine execution on the piano.

CHAPTER II.

“ Lord, by every minstrel tongue
Be thy praise so duly sung,

That thine angels’ harps may ne’er
Fail to find fit echoing here :

We the while, of meaner birth.

Who in that divinest spell
Dare not hope to join on earth.

Give us grace to listen well.” — Christian Year.

In my last communications I promised to give some practical
hints on the art of studying, and of teaching music. But, before
entering on this part of my task, I shall have mm;h to say on a
subject which musical teachers generally appear to consider alto-
gether out of their province, viz., the views and feelings with
which music should be studied. I hope to put the motives for

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

seeking to acquire proficiency in art in a light ladies in general
are not accustomed to see it placed in. Shall I startle you, fair
reader, when I say that I consider cultivation of musical taste to
be a religious duty? And for these reasons. Our Creator has
given us, besides a soul, a mind and body, both of which require
recreation as well as food and rest. There are few recreations so
healthful as music, certainly none more so. In the first place,
singing or playing in moderation are conducive to bodily health ;
secondly, they have the power of raising, and at the same time
soothing, the spirits ; thirdly, they occupy and amuse the mind,
as much as light literature, without that strain upon the sight
and brain which the eager reading of an exciting tale never fails
to produce. I am aware that there is one class of persons on
whose spirits music makes little or no impression ; and another,
less insensible, but who would deny that the pleasure they derive
from music is to be compared with the charm of light literature.
The first class of persons is, happily, a very small one, so small
that one may put them into the same category with the deaf and
dumb. For I am inclined to think that in that class I have
styled “ insensible ” there are many who do like some par-
ticular kinds of music ; for instance, a military band, or an
exquisite voice, a flute, or an organ, I have known to please
people who disliked the sound of the piano or violin. And with
regard to persons of the second class, who are far more numerous
than the first, I am convinced that it is want of musical education
alone that prevents their feeling the magic power that exists in
harmony.

I have begun by taking the above ground for my argument in
favour of its being a duty to cultivate our musical taste. I have
said so fai’ only what might be adduced in favour of cultivating
a love for the country, for gardening, for sketching, for home
occupations. All these are innocent and healthful recreations,
well calculated to fill up profitably tliat leisure time which hangs
so heavily on the hands of many ladies, urging some into
a never-ending round of visiting, others into incessant novel-

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

reading, both of which may be classed as mental dram-drinking.
But, besides the reasons I have given for cultivating love of
music, there exists another of a higher nature. The human soul
is capable of feeling that music has some mysterious connection
with the unseen world. The common expression “heavenly
sound” shows how deeply this idea is planted in our nature.
Just consider what music is, how it is produced, and what
sensations and thoughts it creates in those who hear it. Is it not
a wonderful thing ? How can we account for its strange power ?
Looking at it in a matter-of-fact way, we behold nothing which
will seem to us an adequate cause for the effect produced. The
experimental philosopher will tell us it is only a vibration in the
air ; but how can merely mechanical action affect the mind and
heart ? I am not speaking of singing, because one might say
that the words, the associations connected with a song, would
have a strong influence on the listener ; but I am supposing
music to be sound, and nothing more, and it is in this form that
it is so wonderful a thing. How astonishing that mere vibration
in the air should have power to tell us things which no words
could ever express ! Where can we discover that subtle essence,
more rapid and penetrating than the electric fluid, which dwells
in fine music, and has power to make us turn pale with awe,
glow with warmth, shed tears of joy or of sorrow, thrill with
indescribable, incomprehensible sensations, and grow faint with
the intensity of the enjoyment ? Is it reasonable to attribute the
power of music to anything mechanical ? No ; as the poet’s soul
speaks to us through the vehicle of words and letters, so does the
composer’s soul reveal itself to us by means of musical instru-
ments. Let us not use words in a formal, canting manner,
without weighing their meaning. I have spoken of the soul.
Consider what the human soul is. That portion of our nature
which was created in the image of God. It is from the soul
that proceed that love of truth and beauty, that longing for
perfection, that pleasure in acts of benevolence, that yearning
after the mysterious and the unseen, which one finds in persons

A FEW WOEDS ABOXJT MUSIC.

of a poetic turn of mind, and in all young people who have not
been early exposed to the blighting influence of worldliness.
Persons who have been trained up in a dry, prosaic system of
education, see nothing in nature beyond a vast storehouse of
useful and agreeable articles spread out for the benefit of man
and beast. And in art they see no more than a certain amount
of human ingenuity and industry, well calculated to amuse an
idle hour. They see, in short, only the external portion of
nature and art — of that part which is not revealed by the senses
they know nothing. They are too deaf to hear the low, sweet
voice of nature, too blind to see the faint reflection of heavenly
fire which glows in the lamp of art. I do not blame persons of
this turn of mind for condemning the occupation of an artist —
for calling it frivolous, worldly, useless, or worse than useless.
For, truly, were there nothing loftier or deeper in art than that
mechanical skill which the multitude too often hold to be
its highest excellence, then would the life of an artist be a
low, sordid trade, far more contemptible than that of the
cobbler or the tinker, inasmuch as it would be a trade less
indispensible as respects society, and therefore less manly.

Alas ! must I say it ? We have in these days too many artists
undeserving of the lofty title — too many who are mere picture-
mongers or sound-spinners, and who seem to have realized the
ingenious Mr. Dousterswivel’s idea of multipl3ung creations of
the mind by the aid of machinery ! And so it will continue
until art in its higher w'alk is more generally cultivated by
amateurs. Artists must live; and while the public taste demands
flimsy, trashy works of art, there will always be a large class of
painters and musicians ready to supply that demand. Neither
have we any right to blame them for gaining their livelihood by
executing what will bring them food and raiment instead of
what would bring them barren laurels, if indeed it brought so
much as that. It is all very fine to talk of artists pandering to
the public, poets selling Pegasus to draw the plough or a strolling
player’s caravan, and so forth. Every artist who lives by his

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

profession feels that “ they who live to please must please to
live.” The reformation must begin in another quarter; and,
as music (though without any reason) is considered to he a
feminine accomplishment, and consequently that the greater
number of music publishers and music masters look upon the
ladies of England as their patronesses, on this account it seems
advisable for all those who have the cause of music at heart to
do what they can to induce their fair countiywomen to study the
art in the right way.

CHAPTER III.

“ To other strains our souls are set;

A giddy whirl of sin
Fills ear and brain, and will not let
Heaven’s harmonies come in.” — Christian Year.

At the risk of appearing extreme I do not hesitate to say that a
large portion of the musical publications and performances of the
present day are injurious not only to public taste but also to public
morality. In the first place, they are opposed to truth and
justice ; they gild copper, and offer it to an ignorant confiding
public as pure gold. Secondly, they appeal to the baser passions
of the multitude — vulgar wonder, and coarse unfeeling merriment,
equally excited, and to the same idle purpose, by the tricks of a
conjuror and the grimaces of a buffoon. These things have their
proper theatres ; but, out of respect to the memory of the illus-
trious dead, let not buffoonery profane the charmed air, which
has just been rendered sacred by conveying to spellbound listeners
the magic sounds of some great master’s glorious conceptions.
In a concert- room, now-a-days, it is often dangerous to give way
to the feelings excited by a sublime composition, on account of
the painful reaction which is almost sure to follow when heavenly
dreams are driven from one’s mind by a comic song. Even if it
were one of those first-rate compositions — a buffo song from a

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

good opera — it would jar upon the mind when it has just been
lifted heavenwards on the harmonies of some mighty master ; hut
an English comic song, poor in wit and poorer in music, — a nigger
song suitable to the taste of a pothouse or a street audience, — oh,
it is unendurable ! The only safe plan when one glances down a
programme and sees “ Dali’ tuo stellate soglio,” followed imme-
diately by “ Lucy Long,” the only safe plan in such a case is, to
keep watch and ward over one’s imagination ; to keep one’s eyes
open and fixed on the unpoetical -looking paraphernalia of the
orchestra, so as to run no risk of fancying oneself in the seventh
heaven ; and, if one has resolution to do that, one can enjoy that
portion of the composition which is addressed to the ear and the
mind; and though one must deny oneself the highest of its
attributes, viz., the Promethean spark which lifts us upwards,
yet it is better to do that, and be content with moderate enjoy-
ment, than

“ To rise like a rocket, and fall like a stick.”

I do not mean to take so narrow-minded a view as to deny the
merit of humorous music. But there is a time for all things, and
I do not believe that those who have just felt deeply and intensely
a fine composition can he in a mood to welcome an indifferent
one, though they might be amused by it at another time.
Drollery is well in its way, hut there are moments when it is
fatiguing and distasteful ; and one of those moments I hold to be
the interval of silence that follows the last chord of a glorious
composition. But my fair readers will say, are we to be con-
demned to listen to nothing but grave music ? By no means.
By fine music I do not mean solemn music ; though, doubtless,
solemnity is the highest attribute of music. Perhaps I shall
illustrate my meaning better by giving examples taken from the
sister arts of Poetry and Painting. Suppose you had just seen
Hamlet or Macbeth, and had been strongly excited and touched,
would you be in a mood to enjoy a farce ? Or say you had just
read The Siege of Corinth, and a person seeing you close the book
offered to read vou The Natural History of a Gent f Or, again, if

A FEW WOEDS ABOUT MUSIC.

you are in a picture gallery, and have been gazing entranced on
a Eaffaelle or a Domenichino, till every earthly thought had
passed from your mind, would you like the subject of the next
picture that met your eye to be dmnken Dutch boors, by one of
the coarsest of the Flemish painters ? But are we always to be
in the clouds? you will say. No ; but it is not agreeable to come
to the earth too suddenly. One should descend gradually, if one
would escape a violent shock. We can look with delight on such
a picture as Creswick’s “Chequered Shade” at any time ; yet
that picture is surely a long way off from the sublime, unless,
indeed, one allows that there is always something solemn in
Nature, even in her most cheerful dress : —

“ Oh, pleasant land of idlesse !

Jollity bides not ’neath the trees,

But thought, that roams from folly free.

Through the pure world of poetry,

Puts on her strength in scenes like these !

And SO, in poetry, a cheerful English landscape by Wordsworth
or Mary Howitt would at once tranquillize and brace the mind
after the excitement of Othello or King Lear; and on the same
principle we could enjoy Hummel, Mendelssohn, and Thalberg,
in their gayest compositions, immediately after Beethoven’s
“ Sinfonia Eroica.” And why? Because they are never vulgar,
commonplace, poor. Their gaiety is the gaiety of the skylark,
not of the monkey. If joy runs through their melodies, it is a
pure, sparkling joy, always graceful, always refined. It is as
unlike the noisy, empty mei-riment of indifferent music, as the
keen wit of Sydney Smith or Thackeray is unlike the joking of
“ fast” men and clowns. But I am exceeding the limits allotted
to me, and must come to an end rapidly. I have accused most
modern music of sinning against truth and justice, and of flatter-
ing the lower passions of the many. I have a third accusation to
bring forward, and that one concerns my fair readers especially.
I say it fosters vanity, conceit, affectation, and insincerity. Are
you shocked at my bitterness ? But it is not easy to speak gently

A FEW WOKDS ABOUT MUSIC.

of the enemies of what we love. And I love music, real music,
and am indignant when I see her throne filled by a crowd of
usurpers, struggling and fighting to maintain their ephemeral
reign. Is it not the constant complaint of professors, that it is no
use to play good music to the general run of audiences — vain to
attempt making j’oung ladies learn classical compositions ? And
whence does this proceed ? From this cause, that governesses
and masters who cannot play tolerably themselves are frequently
employed to teach beginners. What should we say of the wis-
dom of the man who allowed an incompetent workman to lay the
foundation of his house, with the idea of reserving his means for
decorating the roof? Yet that is the common system adopted by
most people with regard to the education, especially the musical
education, of their children ; and the natural result follows. If
the child have a defective ear and little talent, hut a good share
of vanity and ambition, the chances are she will practise hard,
and get noisy execution, in order to show off, hut the ear and the
taste will remain bad ; and w’hen she goes to a finishing master
for a dozen lessons, fancying herself a brilliant performer, what
can he do ? If he be not a very honest man indeed, he will flatter
her with the idea that she may venture to perform bravura pieces,
and she will become a source of annoyance to her acquaintance
from the obligation they feel under of asking her to play when
they would sooner be excused listening to the scrambling per-
formances common to plaj'ers of that stamp. Take another case.
Suppose a child with a good ear learns from a had teacher. She
will get weak, bungling execution ; and, when she hears first-rate
playing, will fancy that her hand is too small, her fingers too
stiff, her wrist too weak, for her ever to play well. Her delicate
ear will not allow her to endure a had tone and incorrect passages,
so she gets weary and disgusted with her practising ; and when a
good master tells her that two or three hours a day, for a few
months, over scales, exercises, and studies, will give her that
strength and flexibility of finger she thinks it impossible to attain,
she either disbelieves him, or thinks the time and labour too

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

great, and so she shuts up her piano in despair, and plays no more,
except a polka or quadrille for dancers on the carpet.

I could cite many other cases in which time and money have
been expended upon young ladies’ musical education without
producing anything but disappointment to parents and weariness
to pupils ; and in cases where talent for music exists, and good
taste has not been cultivated, those only who love harmony
intensely can guess how heavy is the loss sustained.

CHAPTEE IV.

“ I heard a thousand blended notes.

While in a grove I sate reclined.

In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts
Bring sad thoughts to the mind.

“ To her fair works did Nature link

The human soul that through me ran ;

And much it grieved my heart to think
What man has made of man.” — Wordsworth.

The author of “ The Seven Lamps of Architecture ” tells us
that he once asked a great artist for some simple rule for attaining
excellence in art. The reply he received was, “Know what you
have to do, and do it.”* Now, this certainly looks like a truism,
and, when first it is presented to us, a recollection of Mrs. Glass’s
famous receipt, beginning “ First catch your hare,” will perhaps
come into one’s head, and force a smile against one’s will.

But, on consideration, we see that there is deep, practical
'wisdom in this apparently trite sajdng, and that, instead of class-
ing it vnth the witty cook’s sensible remark, we ought rather to
place it in company with the ancient sage’s far-famed “ Know
thyself.” It is chiefly, however, to lady students of art that due
consideration of Mr. Kuskin’s golden rule would be valuable.

* I am quoting from memory, and claim indulgence if I am not quite
accurate.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

The thoroughly well-trained artist needs no such rale. He has
acted on it, or he could not have attained excellence ; and he will
endeavour to make those who study under him follow his example.
And better, infinitely better, than all the hard work of the most
industrious student, labouring alone and imassisted, is a lesson —
yes only one lesson — from a great master. By a gi’eat master
I do not mean a great genius, but a person possessed (in addition
to a fair degree of executive power) of a real, unaffected love of
art, a highly- cultivated taste, and an enlarged mind ; one, too,
who is endowed with patience and common sense. And I beg
my fair readers to bear in mind that half a dozen lessons from
a first-rate master, followed up by a few months’ steady, energetic,
careful study, alone, will do more towards attaining proficiency in
the art they may be trying to acquire, than years of ill-directed
labour. But there are a great number of ladies who find it
absolutely impossible to obtain first-rate instruction at any period
of their lives, as many who have not any inducement to do so,
till it is too late, or till they are persuaded it is too late ; and
a still larger number who, if they had the opportunity of taking
lessons, would be unable to profit by them, from the prejudices,
bad habits, and vitiated taste instilled into them by incompetent
teachers in childhood. It is to Englishwomen of these three
classes that I am addressing myself. And, indeed, they com-
prehend many thousands of my fair countrywomen, of various
ranks, from the lady who, seated at a magnificent grand Erard,
astonishes or tortures, as the case may be, her hearers with her
interpretation of the pieces commonly played at concerts, down to
the factory girl who thumps away at the Row Polka and Co., on
a little, wiry, toneless piano by a cheap maker, probably bought
second-hand. I do not address myself to ladies who have had
the advantages of a first-rate musical education. The daughter
of the distinguished amateur mil probably possess finer taste
than most professional players. She has early seen art appre-
ciated by those she looks up to most, and a reverence for it will
have taken root in her mind in childhood. Her taste will have

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

been refined by frequent opportunities of hearing fine music, her
industry excited by feeling that those it is her duty to please are
capable of appreciating her progress, and she has had every
assistance in gaining mechanical skill that good teaching can
give. She stands in no need of my advice. But it is to those
who are working up hill, unassisted, that I hope to be of some
use. I address myself to young ladies in the eountry, out of the
reach of a good master — to mothers forced to economize in the
education of their children — to elder sisters in a large family
who are anxious to assist in the school-room — to single ladies
with' plenty of leisure, who would be glad to bestow it on the
children of a brother or sister who may have made a not too
fortunate marriage — and above all I address myself to governesses,
whom a tyrannical custom obliges to undertake the teaching of
an art they have never learnt themselves.

Do not call me crochetty or quixotic. Understand clearly,
gentle reader, that I lay no claim to anything like originality
with regard to the method of study I am about to advise.
I shall say nothing you might not hear from any good master.
I do not profess to have discovered some wonderful new system
which will do away with all difficulties, and enable idle amateurs
to rival hardworking professors, as if by magic. There is no
royal road to learning.

“ Oft has this truth been spoken,

• But never yet too oft.”

In the present day there is a tendency to putting faith in new
and untried theories, and a strong fancy for off-hand, amusing
systems of learning. Now if this “ working-day world ” of ours
were truly that flowery garden, or vast playground, which the
young too often expect to find it, then these modem systems of
“ all play and no work ” (granting, for argument’s sake, that
they attain their end) might answer well enough. But, inasmuch
as human life has in it a much larger share of the dry and dull
than of the bright and pleasant — of the hard and bitter than of
tfie soft and sweet, — it seems a cmel kindness to surround the

A FEW WOEDS ABOUT MUSIC.

young with an atmosphere of luxury, sparing their minds every
kind of fatigue, contradiction, or annoyance, and so rendering
them mentally delicate and feeble, though we are aware all
the time that sooner or later they must one day leave their
sheltered bower for the battle-field of life. But I had better not
stop to sertnonize, or we shall lose sight of the matter in hand.

I am afraid my space is nearly exhausted, and, therefore,
I must confine myself to-day to giving advice to young ladies
who have recently left the school-room, and who intend to pursue
their musical studies unassisted by a master. The plan pmsued
by a great many young ladies in this case is, to waste a good deal
of money in purchasing polkas and quadrilles (choosing them
more by the decoration on the title-page than by any mark of
musical merit), and then to play them in a careless, slovenly way,
leaving out any double notes or passages requiring neat execution,
and putting ad libitum harmonies in the bass, to save the trouble
of reading the real notes correctly. The consequence of this
plan is, that after wasting an hour a day in what she calls
“ practising,” for a twelvemonth, the young lady plays a great
deal worse than she did when she first left the school-room,
and the chances are that as soon as a serious flirtation begins
(unless the gentleman happens to be musical) her piano is closed
altogether and novel-reading taken up instead. Some people
would say, “So much the better, for she could not have possessed
decided talent for music, and the hour a day devoted to practising
was time wasted.” Perhaps so, if she played nothing but an
interminable succession of polkas. But, suppose during that
twelvemonth she had practised selections from Handel, Haydn,
Mozart, and Beethoven, chants and cathedral anthems, Scotch
and Irish melodies, and a few good studies for pianoforte ? Had
she played such music as that, an hour a day for a twelvemonth,
she would have gained not only a great increase of execution,
but a still greater increase of taste and knowledge. “ But that
style of music is so difficult to read,” objects one fair reader.
Not so difficult as you fancy. Classical music is like cipher-

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

writing. Once get the key to it, and it is easier than any other.
Showy, executive music requires constant and vigorous practice
to keep it up. For that reason it is fit only for professional
performers, and those ladies whose nearest relatives are sufficiently
music-mad to endure willingly the sound of “ practising,” which
is a very different thing from the sound of playing what has
already been made perfect by practice. Classical music does not
require that incessant labour. Doubtless you will find here and
there in some solid compositions, quiet, unassuming little passages,
which are far more difficult to execute perfectly than the noisiest
and most brilliant tour de force that ever dazzled the eyes and
amused the ears of a fashionable audience in a concert-room.
To play classical miisic well, one requires good sense and good
temper ; for this reason, that it does not gratify vanity and
a desire to show off. The lady who devotes the time she allows
herself for the piano to classical music must expect to be thought
little of whenever she plays to listeners who value a piece
in proportion to the noise and dash it makes. But for her
encouragement, I can assure her that a great many persons who
know nothing about music, but are gifted with a good ear, will
always prefer an old-fashioned expressive air, well harmonized
and perfectly executed, to the most brilliant morgeau of the
modem school. Gentlemen, especially, she will find are fond
of solid music. In general society “ the Miss Lacquers ” begin-
ning to perform a long noisy bravura duet is the signal for
energetic conversation, and, with the exception of such gentlemen
as approach the piano for the sake of admiring the young ladies’
fair hands and rounded amis, no one pays the smallest attention
to the performance ; and, should no admirers happen to be pre-
sent, the chances are they will play for the amusement of the
tables and chairs, the company doing their best to escape hearing
a note. When they have hammered away to the last chord,
thanks and compliments are showered upon them, by those who
have wished the piano at the Antipodes during the last ten
minutes. Was I wrong when I said that the musical system of

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

the present day produces insincerity? The musical performance
of amateurs in general society is frequently nothing more or less
than what Mr. Carlyle would call “ an enormous sham,” a
“ monstrous piece of flunkeydom.” But supposing after a morgeau
de concert, with a few wrong notes added, has been performed, a
young lady begins a simple song ; let her have only a tolerable
voice, under perfect control, and the power of accompanying her-
self without false harmonies, and I will engage she has plenty of
silent gratified listeners immediately. If her voice is very sweet,
her expression fine, and her song well chosen, she will have even
an enthusiastic audience. Now, what is the lesson amateur
pianoforte-players should learn from this ? Why, that neither
noise nor rapidity are music, and that nothing short of the perfect
execution and powerful expression of a great pianist, aided by
the rich tone of a first-rate instrument, will make any impression
on the hearers of a modem pianoforte piece in general society.
Do not be disheartened, fair reader ; the case is not so desperate
as it looks. I have a remedy to offer. Endeavour to give to
your playing as much as you possibly can of those qualities which
you observe to be so taking in vocal music. First, study to
acquire tone. This is not to be got by playing modern music
alone. If it is in your power, get a few lessons on the organ, in
order to obtain the power of holding down the right notes, of
sliding and changing a finger, of firmly grasping the harmonies,
and of making every finger independent. In a word, it will
enable you to “ know what you have to do, and do it,” which is
what amateur pianists in general have veiy little idea of. In
addition to giving you the power of legato and sostenuto playing,
practising the organ will improve your ear both for sound and
time. The tme value of the long notes, and the beauty of har-
mony, are brought out much more strikingly on an instrument
which has the power of sustaining the sound than on a piano.
It is not recommended to pianists to practise the organ much. It
is said to stiffen the fingers. I cannot say I have found it so
m}^self ; but perhaps I am not a fair judge, never having played

A PEW WORDS AFsODT MUSIC.

the organ regularly for many weeks together. If you take only
a few organ lessons, just for the sake of improving your touch on
the piano, you need not pay much attention to the management
of the stops and the use of the pedals ; but at the same time, if
you choose to afford a regular course of lessons from a good
organist, you will find gaining dexterity of foot and hand is not
without its use to a pianist. If it is entirely out of your power to
get organ lessons, or an organ, seraphine, or melodium to practise
on, then the next thing I advise is to join a singing class on the
Hullah system, so as to get a true idea of the value, in time, of
semibreves, minims, and rests, and also a feeling for harmony.
Singing in part and at sight is the grammar — the foundation — of
all music ; and every one who attempts to play an instrument ought,
voice or no voice, to learn part singing. On no other plan can you
acquire a knowledge of time and accent so easily and rapidly, as
well as the power of reading music with facility. And while you
are learning to sing for the sake of your pla3ung, you should
follow up that study by practising organ music on the piano.
Mr. Novello has published a great quantity of classical music
which would do admirably for this purpose. His catalogue com-
prehends religious music of every description, of various, schools,
of every degree of difficulty, and for the most part excessively
cheap. I cannot speak too highly of a recently-started musical
periodical called Novello' s Part-Song Book. It contains, generally,
three glees or madrigals of sterling musical worth, and at the
same time of pleasing character, and by no means difficult to
execute. Its price is a shilling, and it appears on the 15th of
every month. The proprietors tell us, “ that with the hope of
supplying an impetus to art, by encouraging amongst their
countrymen the study of pure vocal composition,” they have
resolved to offer a monthly premium of eight guineas for the best
part-song which shall be composed for poetry given in the Part-
Song Book. The competition is open to all composers, both
professional and amateur, and the name of the successful candidate
only is known. In the June number we are told that the winner

A FEW WOKDS ABOUT MUSIC.

of the first prize is Walter Cecil Macfarren, and that his com-
position will he printed on the 15th of July in the Part-Song Book.
It is also stated that there were fifty-eight candidate compositions,
many of them of great merit. That certainly is a very en-
couraging piece of news, as it shows what progress musical taste
and knowledge must have made in England of late years. Be-
fore concluding, I must beg my fair readers not to go away with
the idea that I undervalue modem music ; on the contrary, I
consider the compositions of Thalberg, Dohler, and others, to be
exquisitely beautiful, but fit only to be played by those who have
it in their power to devote a good deal of time to practising, and
who are moreover gifted with perseverance and energy, in addi-
tion to a fine taste for music. ■ Besides, I am addressing myself to
ladies who have not made any great progress in piauoforte-
pla3dng, and I should recommend them to begin at the fountain
head, by studying the sort of solid music which all great pianists
have mastered in their early studies. Having laid a good foun-
dation, the amateur is at liberty to add such a superstmcture as
circumstances admit of ; but this I must say, that the common
plan of beginning to raise the edifice without laying any foim-
dation at all, must naturally produce the fruits we see produced
so often, viz., an uninhabitable, useless building, destined to be
blown down by the first gale that attacks it. For forming the
jinger modem exercises are the best. Everybody knows Herz’s
Exercises, Czerny’s Etude de la Velocit€, Chaulieu’s First Six
Months, &c. ; they are all admirable, and I strongly advise
amateur pianists who are kept back by a weak or stiff finger to
practise any one of these works steadily for some weeks. The
newest work of this kind is Dreyschock’s Scales, recently published
by Messrs. Cocks — at a very low price, too. I shall have occasion
to enter further upon this subject of forming the hand when
I am addressing mothers and governesses, and therefore I take
my leave of it for the present.

Should any of my fair friends be so situated that they cannot
follow my advice with regard to learning the organ or joining a

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

singing class, then I recommend them to get and study alone
Part I. of Wilhelm’s Method of Singing, adapted to English use,
by Mr. Hullah ; Novello’s Musical Times, the Part-Song Booh, and
as many as they please of those publications containing selections
from great composers, arranged as short solos for organ or piano,
which Mr. Novello has offered to the public at reduced prices.
I have given now some hints which may be useful to those who
can play tolerably. In future communications I shall say more
upon the mechanical part of musical study, to assist those who
wish to teach the piano properly to children.

CHAPTER V.

“ Dark-brow’d sophist, come not anear ;

All the place is holy ground ;

Hollow smile and frozen sneer

Come not here.

Holy water will I pour

Into every spicy flower
Of the laurel-shrubs that hedge it around.

The flowers would faint at your cruel cheer ;

In your eye there is death ;

There is frost in your breath ;

Which would blight the plants.

Where you stand you cannot hear
From the groves within
The wild bird’s din.

In the heart of the garden the merry bird chants ; ,

It would fall to the ground if you came in.” — Tennyson.

Those among my fair readers who are expecting practical hints
on the art of teaching the piano, must forgive me if I postpone the
performance of my promise till I have fully developed certain
views with regard to pianoforte-playing which I think ought to
precede what I have to say on the mechanical part of the art.
Many people have an idea that great proficiency in music is

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

necessary in order to enable one to delight others, hut that for
one’s own private pleasure a very moderate amount of knowledge
and skill is required. This is an utter mistake. In reality it is
quite the other way, and ten times more musical power is required
to make the piano a resource for our solitary hours than for our
evenings in society. In company, especially at a distance from
London, perforaiers of very moderate calibre are valuable. It is
not so much music, as something to break silence and dissipate
dulness, that is wanted. A noisy piece of music, . ill performed,
is useful in giving shy people courage to talk with animation
under cover of the din. A popular song, or a popular polka, will
afford something to discuss. However, without taking extreme
cases, we may safely assert, that a very moderate degree of
musical acquirement will enable a young lady to amuse her
friends and acquaintance, but that she will require something
more to amuse herself. In order to make the pianoforte an
agreeable companion to a lady who leads a retired life, and is
thrown on her own resources for amusement, it is necessaiy that
she should be mistress of her instrument.

There is little pleasure in playing till the performer has gained
sufficient knowledge of time and harmony to enable her to read
music with facility, and sufficient executive power to enable her
to produce a fine tone, and to play without effort. And she who
has got so far as this is a finished pianiste. Perhaps some of my
fair readers may be inclined to dispute this point, by asserting
that the pianoforte is a resource to many who can neither play
well at sight, nor execute a difficult passage. A resource it may
be, an amusement, an occupation, a rival to “ knitting and netting
and crochet ; ” but a companion — even in the same sense that a
dog or a book is a companion — never ! To a good pianiste the
pianoforte is a loving friend. It gives you the most precious of
all things — sympathy. As your finger presses the delicate ivory,
exquisite sounds meet your longing ear. They express to you
the ideas floating through your mind ; they utter aloud the
feelings buried deep within your heart ; they satisfy the vague

24:

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

mysterious yearnings after the unseen world that stir within your
soul. What the face of Nature is to one who loves Wordsworth’s
poetry, such is her piano to one who loves Beethoven’s music.
Why have poets slighted you, dear treasure-house of harmony ?
Why do they ennoble the lyre, the harp, the lute, and leave you
without one kind word ? Sweet instrument, friend ever ready to
smile or sigh with me, I would I were a poet for your sake ! Is
it your name or your form that has caused you to be thus
scorned ? Both, I fear ; for your form (though dear to a player
as the chest that holds his gold to a miser) is, I must own, far
from graceful ; and as for your name, though it flows as melo-
diously as an air of Mozart, it has, alas ! been too often degraded
by commonplace associations to render it fit for poetry. Yet,
after all, I do not see that “ pianoforte” is a worse constractive
material for those architects who build in the air than “ the train
at Coventry.”

But, to leave trifling, and to speak soberly and seriously, the
pianoforte is, to those who know how to use it, a little world in
itself. Most instruments require an accompaniment, but the
pianoforte is to the skilful pianist an inexhaustible storehouse of
harmony. Tmly, I do not mean to say that the sounds are, in
themselves, to be compared with those of a fine band. The
pianoforte bears to the orchestra the same proportion that a
sketch bears to a finished painting. The roughest sketch from
the hand of a master gives pleasure to one who can draw, though
a common observer may see little in it to admire. And why ?
Because the eye and mind of the artist are in a state to receive
impressions from the faintest hints, which would be lost on one
w'hose perception of the beautiful has not been rendered acute by
cultivation. The artist sees on the paper a few grey lines and
black touches, and they kindle his imagination, and bring to his
memory distant hills clothed in aerial tints, foliage lit up by
sunlight, wild moorland or shady glen, all invested with the
charm of colour and effect. And even so it is with the musician.
The pianoforte enables us to bring before the mind a spirited

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

sketch of some mighty composer’s magical creation. You will
understand what I mean if you compare the degree of pleasure
with which you listen to an overture or symphony rendered upon
the piano, after having heard the real effect given by a fine
orchestra, with the degree of pleasure with which you listen to
one of whose orchestral light and shade you are ignorant. Take,
for instance, the overture to The Midsummer Night' & Dream, play
it on the piano, and what becomes of those enchanting chords
with which it opens ? Where are those “ linked notes of sweet-
ness long drawn out” which tell the listener that he is on the
confines of fairy- land ? those soft delicately-swelling chords which
seem to come from afar, like invisible music in an enchanted
region ? How cold, how poor, how weak, is the interpretation on
the piano ! But, when you have heard a fine orchestra perform
it, memory and fancy will help you with their magic spells, and
the recollections of the past will throw their gorgeous colouring
over the dull hues of the present.

Those who wish to make a companion and friend of their piano
should attach some idea to what they play. It is related of
Weber that he never saw a beautiful landscape without feeling
corresponding musical ideas rise in his mind. And many persons
without the slightest pretensions to musical genius have experienced
something of the kind. The difference between their sensation
and that of the great composer consists in the one being a creation
of imagination, the other tire congenial suggestion of memory.
Any one with a fine ear for music and real love of poetry will find
intense pleasure in playing certain pianoforte pieces, and attaching
to them suitable passages from favourite authors. For instance,
there is an exquisite little piece by Cramer, called “ Souvenir of
Bygone Days,” which will serve to illustrate several of Tennyson’s
poems. Sometimes it reminds me of “ The Lotus Eaters,” at
another of “ The Lady of Shalott.” Mendelssohn’s “ Songs with-
out Words,” too, are rich in ideas fit for the dreamy character of
Tennyson’s poetry. There is one spirited yet solemn melody in
the sixth book of the Lieder which always seems to me to express

A FEW WOKDS ABOUT MUSIC.

“ Sir Galahad.” It is in E minor, and there is a sort of stately
haste in the steady onward march of the tema, broken here and
there by trumpet-like calls, which resemble Sir Galahad’s solemn
quest. It is too short, though, for the whole poem, and wants a
subject more in the religious style for verses 3 and 4. It would
be easy to find something in the works of the same composer that
would come in there without injuring the effect of the rest.
Beethoven is rich in subjects for poetry. They who play his
music need hardly be told so. Weber, too, is eminently suggestive.
What a gem of poetry is “ The Mermaid’s Song ” in Oberon !
There is an air in Der Freischutz, ” Softly sighs the breeze of
evening,” which forms a landscape. As the entrancing melody
and harmony steal upon the ear, you feel that the twilight is
dying away — that the stars are coming out — that the night-
breeze is stealing among the willows which bend over the glassy
surface of the quiet river ; in a word, you feel that music can
paint.

Thalberg’s “ Marche Funebre ” is a poetical composition. As
I understand it, it begins with deep, heavy sorrow, which gradually
calms and softens, till hope springs up, and thoughts of heaven
gleam brightly across the mind. Then the plaintive subject re-
turns, varied by a murmuring accompaniment, and again the
joyous air breaks in like the song of angels rejoicing over the
safety of the departed spirit. Once more are heard a few bars of
the funeral march, followed by the wailing melody in B flat minor,
accompanied by a restless tremolo, expressive of emotion. Then
comes a vehement octave passage, concluded by a few calm and
solemn bars, which, without any great effort of imagination, we
may fancy expresses passionate sorrow, exhausted by its own
violence, and recalled to calmness by the voice of religion, sub-
siding into submission to the will of Heaven.

To give proper effect to this beautiful pianoforte composition
great execution is required. I do not recommend it to any lady
who does not possess a strong finger and resolution to practise
vigorously. But there are some of Dreyschock’s recent pieces

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

which have this same charm of poetiy without any great diffi-
culties in the way of execution. The two nocturnes, called
“ Bluettes,” and the second nocturne in E flat, are full of grace
and expression. There is something very captivating in their
plaintive melody, and smooth flowing accompaniment. When
one plays them in the twilight it is easy to fancy one hears the
murmur of the river

“ Flowing down to Camelot.”

Then rises a vision of the place where

“ Four grey walls and four grey towers
Overlook a space of flowers,

And the silent isle embowers
The Lady of Shalott.”

And still, as the dream-like music flows on, one sees her weaving
her web and beholding in the mirror

“ the highway near,

Winding down to Camelot.”

And then, as the gentle melody gradually dies away, one knows
that

“ Thro’ the noises of the night

She floateth down to Camelot ;

“ And as the boat-head wound along
The willowy hills and fields among,

They heard her singing her last song,

The Lady of Shalott. —

“ Heard a carol, mournful, holy.

Chanted loudly, chanted lowly.

Till her blood was frozen wholly,

Turned to tower’d Camelot ;

“ For ere she reached upon the tide
The first house by the water-side,

Singing in her song she died.

The Lady of Shalott.”

I could mention many slow movements from Haydn, Mozart,
Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Spohr, and other great masters, which

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

would serve to illustrate this most musical of poems ; but what I
have pointed out will suffice for those among my fair readers who
really lave poetry and music ; and to others, criticism of this kind
would appear trifling and unreal.

Note. — It would occupy too much space were I to particularize all the modern
composers for piano whose works possess sentiment ; hut I cannot forbear
from mentioning one to whom I owe a deep debt of gratitude for the intense
pleasure his works have recently given me — Adolphe Henselt.

CHAPTER VI.

“ Let us then be up and doing.

With a heart for any fate ;

Still achieving, still pursuing,

Learn to labour, and to wait.” — Longfellow.

I have no doubt that my last article was condemned as romantic
and over- strained by some of my fair readers. Now, as I wish to
enlist in my cause minds of all casts, I mean to attempt what is
often set down as an impossibility, viz., to please everybody. So,
to-day, I am going to be as prosaic and business-like as the pence-
table ; and the most matter-of-fact lady breathing may venture
to listen to me just now without fearing any flights of fancy.
Most mothers and governesses are aware that until a child can
hold its pen properly, and make strokes firmly, it is useless to set
it to write words ; and every village schoolmistress knows that
coarse hemming must be conquered before fine stitching is
attempted. Again, unless the multiplication-table is learnt per-
fectly it is vain to expect any progress in arithmetic ; and, unless
certain names and dates are firmly fixed in the memory, no clear
ideas with regard to history can be hoped for. Even so it is with
every art and science, from painting and mathematics down to
knitting stockings and making puddings.

There are men and women in the world who never can do any
thing well, because in childhood they were allowed to give way to

A FEW WOEDS ABOUT MUSIC.

sloth and slovenliness. If any fair reader is shocked by these
two ugly words, let her remember that the reality is uglier than
the name, and that a lady who never does anything that gives
her trouble from one year’s end to another is guilty of those vices,
though the united efforts of her dressmaker and her maid may
conceal the fact from the world.

Music, studied properly, is a powerful aid in general education,
but as it is learnt in many houses it is a hindrance rather than an
aid. It may be made the means of opening the mind, strength-
ening the memory, refining the taste, and guiding rightly the
imagination and feelings. But too often we see it made an agent
to narrow and confine the intellect, dwarf the feelings and the
memory, quench the fancy, and degrade the taste. The me-
chanical part of the art may be made to assist in giving habits of
accuracy, attention, energy, patience, perseverance, and good
temper. But a great number of children gain from their hour’s
“ practising” only an increase of idleness, carelessness, or irrita-
bility, according to their different dispositions. Many mothers,
and a still greater number of governesses, detest music, and wish
the fashion of ^making it an indispensable branch of education
would go out, as useless and unpleasant fashions generally do,
after they have had their day. I should agree with them if I
understood by music the senseless occupation of running the
fingers about among pieces of ivory for an hour a day for years,
and at the end of the time finding they had gained an acquire-
ment which was no resource to themselves nor any great pleasure
to their friends. And, depend upon it, did no young ladies culti-
vate music with any other aim than that of outshining a sister or
a schoolfellow, the fashion would have gone out long ago. But
some study the art to such good purpose, that they keep the light
burning in spite of every effort to quench it.

If I am not careful I shall break my promise of being matter-
of-fact, and so I will proceed at once to give practical advice for
teaching the pianoforte to children. I will suppose that a
governess who did not succeed in her piano studies in her own

A PEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

school- days, and who gave up playing altogether on entering a
family where the plan adopted was to have a music-master, finds
it necessary to accept a situation where she is required to teach
music to beginners. I will suppose there is* a little girl able to
perform indifferently a good many of the early lessons in an
instruction-book ; another whom mamma has been trying to
teach “ her notes” in vain for two or three months past; and a
third who has been considered too young to learn. Most children
have a great desire to begin music. It seems to them at first like
a game of play ; and it is most desirable to take advantage of this
feeling, and to make the first month’s lessons an amusement.
Leave the hard work till some love of the art has been implanted
in the young mind. If the new instructress observes that her
eldest pupil reads the notes with difficulty, holds her hand ill,
pays no attention to rests, and seems to have no ear for time,
I recommend her to close the piano entirely for a week, and to
give her lessons without an instrument, something in this way : —
Let her place the three children before her, telling them to
stand erect and well, as if they were going to take a dancing
lesson. Then teach them to beat time, and get them to do it
gracefully. The slow, graceful wave of the hand is worth gain-
ing early : it will give an impression of the cantahile movement.
In the singing class hooks beating time is fully explained ; but
for the sake of those who may not have it in their power to
procure one conveniently, I will subjoin an explanation of the
method.

The left hand should he held at a little distance from the
waist, and the fingers of the right hand should give a smart, but
not violent, tap upon the open palm of the other hand, to mark
the first heat ; lift the right hand and raise it to an erect position
for the second heat ; wave it to the left for the third beat, and to
the right for the fourth. This should at first be done very slow,
and always in a marked, emphatic manner. Take care that all
the children strike on the palm of the left hand at the same
moment, and all make the 'vv'ave together Some children will

A FEW WOBDS ABOUT MUSIC.

catch this movement much quicker than others of comse, just as
some learn to dance with greater ease than others. Let them
practise this heating of time, as they would practise the batte-
ments iu a dancing lesson. Do not keep them so long at it as
to tire them ; but if they are in good health, and are good-
humoured children, they will find it an amusing exercise, and
will be willing to try again and again till it is conquered. Make
them count 1, 2, 3, 4, with the beats ; count with them, laying
a strong emphasis on 1, and a slight emphasis on 3, which they
will imitate unconsciously. From ten minutes to a quarter of an
hour will be long enough for the beating. Then tell them to
sit down, and after a few second’s silence, to make them wonder
what is coming, say E ; then make them all repeat E, first
together, and then separately. Then say G. Do not add B till
the youngest child has learnt E and G perfectly. You may
make this droll and amusing if you manage well. Then add D
and F. If the children are very slow in capacity, or have been
much spoiled, do not force too much on them. This will suffice
for the first lesson in some cases ; but with quick, well-trained
children you may proceed as follows : — Take a slate and draw
a long horizontal line upon it, and holding it up say, “ What is
this ? ” The children will say, “ a line.” Then draw a second
just above it, and say, “What is this?” “ Another line,” they
will probably answer. Then draw a third and ask again. Then
say, “Which was the first line I drew?” The children will
point to the bottom line. Then ask, “ Which was the second
line I drew ? ” and afterwards which is the third line. Then
draw the fourth and fifth lines, and ask their names. You will
find no child of average capacity will ever want to be told again
which is the first line. Then ask if they have forgotten the
letters you taught them just now, and say, “ Which did I teach
you first?" They will say E. Which second? G; and so on.
Then write E on the first line, G on the second, &c., and make
them tell you which letter belongs to each line. Ivory letters
may be sought, if you see your little pupils tired or puzzled.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

It will make a break. And then rule the lines veiy far apart,
and allow each in turn (in a quiet orderly way) to put an ivory
letter on a line as often as they wish. In this way very young
children may master the five lines of the treble stave in one day ;
and it is by no means extraordinary to meet with grown-up
girls who can play^'eces after a fashion, who would be puzzled if
you asked them to say the lines and spaces backward rapidly.
How is it possible for them to read music if they do not know
the musical alphabet perfectly ? I consider the beating of time
and the names of the five lines quite enough for a little child to
learn in one day. A quick child would learn much more, but
it would be forgotten again ; and it is better 'to stop while the
interest is at its height. If the children wish to prolong the
lesson (and you may make it as amusing as any game of play),
say, “ Music is a treat, and that it would be greedy to allow
oneself too much at a time.”

I am supposing now that a governess, or an elder sister, or aunt
is teaching these children, and that time is no great object. But,
if one were teaching twenty children in a class, one might venture
to proceed farther. Notice the difference in a dancing lesson in
an academy and a dancing lesson at home. The sight of strangers
— the going to another house — the force of example — tendency
to imitate, to emulate, or to take warning by other children —
all these influences act strongly on most young people, and enable
a teacher to keep up the attention and spirits of pupils much
longer in a class than in a private lesson. And I am inclined to
think (though one cannot be sure till one has seen it tried), that
musical academies and classes would bring children forward
much quicker, as well as more pleasantly, than private teaching.
At the same time, I should imagine it would be necessary to
unite private lessons to class teaching, or there would be a danger
of some pupils not exerting themselves.

But to return to our lessons. These music lessons must be of
daily occurrence. The second day I would repeat the first lesson,
making the pupils beat time very slowly and then quicker.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

Having ascertained that all the ehildren can tell you each line
without hesitation, proceed to show them that there are empty
spaces left between the lines, and get them to find out which is
the first, and so on. The names they will learn directly by the
help of the word “ face.” This done, make a note (a semibreve)
on the first line, and tell them to call it E, and so proceed with
the nine notes of the staff. Let them try to write the notes
themselves on the slate. Eule the lines very wide apart, and
neatly, for them, and show them how to make a semibreve.
Having given a slate ruled to each child, say, “ Write G, B, C,”
or any other letters at random. Make th.Qm. find out that there
are two E’s in the staff. You will have accomplished enough
for the second day when the ehildren can write a note on any
given line or space without help from you. I must defer till
next week the conclusion of our little pupils’ lessons.

CHAPTER VII.

“ That is work of waste and ruin —

Do as Charles and I are doing !

Strawberry-blossoms, one and all,

We must spare them — here are many :

Look at it — the flower is small,

Small and low, though fair as any ;

Do not touch it ? summers two
I am older, Anne, than you.” — Wordsworth.

I need hardly say that, before beginning a second lesson, it is
necessary to ascertain that all our little pupil acquired at the
first has been retained. The grand mistake made by most ladies
with regard to musical education is this — they care more about
the quantity than the quality of the progress made in a given
time. Professors of music soon find this out by sad experience,
and feel that it is imdertaking to row against wind and tide
to attempt making the generality of their pupils lay a solid

A FEW WOKDS ABOUT MUSIC.

foundation of musical study before beginning what may be called
the decorative part of the art. I entreat all mothers who wish
their children to excel in music to weigh well what I have said
upon this subject in previous numbers. No branch of education
will bear hurrying, and music less than any. Kemember it is one
of the fine arts, and that numbers of professional people devote
their whole lives to it without attaining anything beyond me-
diocrity. How many years of daily labour, united to good teach-
ing, does it take a girl to become a first-rate dressmaker or con-
fectioner, or even a good housemaid or laundress ! And those are
common arts requiring but a moderate amount of intellect and
dexterity.

Music requires the careful cultivation of a young lady’s mind,
fancy, taste, feeling, and memory, as well as of her manual
strength and agility. If proper time be not allowed for getting
over the fundamental part of the art in childhood, it will be
found out too late that the old proverb, “ Most haste, worst
speed,” has been verified. Parents are often so impatient to hear
their children play pieces,” and grown-up young ladies

so anxious to shine in company, that masters have no chance of
getting time and labour bestowed on what they well know to be
indispensable to attaining good execution or fine taste ; and then
people complain that a teacher does not bring on their children,
when they themselves put most effectual obstacles in the way
of the pupils’ improvement. Another remark I must make here
is, that the custom of considering any wretched worn-out piano-
forte good enough to be employed in schoolrooms, is quite enough
to account for the immense preponderance of bad players over
good, one finds among ladies.

And now to begin our second lesson. Begin with beating time
as before, and then, having gone over again the lines and spaces,
written them on the slate, and repeated them backwards as well
as forwards, write the treble cleff, and let the pupils copy it; then
rub it out and substitute the bass cleff. Then teach them
G, B, D, F, A, and A, C, E, G, just as you did the treble notes.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

That gained, return to the beating of time. Write on the slate
a seale from E first line to E fourth space. Make the notes
semibreves, one in each bar. Teach the pupils the word semi-
breve, and make them understand that bar is the name common
both to the line which hara one part of the music from the other,
and also to the portion of music tarred, or railed off as it were.
Then make them beat time with the eye fixed on the notes, to
which you must point with a pencil, taking care to do it in a
decided manner, touching each note exactly at the same instant
that they strike the loud beat and pronounce one, holding your
pencil still on the note till the fourth beat has had its time.
Then let your pupils try to point, and you join those who are
beating. Then write two minims in each bar instead of the
semibreves, and make them clearly understand the relative value
of the notes by explaining that one is half the value of the other,
as sixpence is half a shilling. Then proceed to the crotchet, and
explain it as a quarter or fourth. Now we come to the quaver,
which may be conquered something in this way : — Write the
eight quavers in one bar as single notes, the others as groups of
two and groups of four. Show the children, by cutting a piece
of paper into eight, and joining it again, and by drawing divided
lines on the slate, what an eighth is, and that eight eighths are
the same as one whole, that four eighths are the same as two
fourths, and take care that they understand that two quarters
and one half are the same thing. You may make this part of
the lesson bear on arithmetic, and with slow children it will be
found useful, independent of musieal acquirement.

Having made all this clear, teach them to beat as before, with
the eye fixed on the notes. While they count and beat four, do
you touch with your pointer two quavers, one after the other,
sajdng at the very instant, One-un, two-oo, three-ee, four-or ; or,
if you prefer it, you can say One and, two and, &c. ; but the
other is more expressive. Go over this till it becomes easy, and
till they feel that the dividing the quavers into groups does not
alter their value. Show them that four quavers make half a bar.

A FEW WOKDS ABOUT MUSIC.

and are, therefore, equal to one minim, or two crotchets, in the
same way that four slices of a cake which had been cut into
eight equal portions would be the very same quantity as one
half (J), or two quarters (f ). This will be enough for the second
lesson ; indeed, should your pupils be slow or ill-trained, it would
be too much. I do not mean my method to be followed slavishly.
I profess merely to give hints which ladies may improve upon at
pleasure ; and, of course, much must depend on the mind and
temper of the pupils.

CHAPTEE VIII.

“ They twinkle to the wintry moon,

And cheer th’ ungenial day,

And tell us all will glisten soon
As green and bright as they.” — Kehle.

“ Thorough, yet simple and clear ; for sublimity always is simple.

Both in sermon and song, a child can seize on its meaning.” — Longfellow.

I do not consider it necessary to detail every individual lesson.
We will, therefore, suppose that a few days’ practice has perfected
the first and second lesson, and added a knowledge of the semi-
quaver and demisemiquaver. One lesson will enable some
children to gain an acquaintance with all the “rests,” others
would get puzzled if shown more than one form at a time. The
best way of showing the value of the rests is by writing notes in
one bar and rests in another, and then singing the passage while
the pupils beat time. The silent bars will strike them forcibly.
If the teacher finds it impossible to sing, the piano must be
resorted to, but I should say that persons so deficient in ear that
they could not sing a few notes are hardly fit to teach music.
There may be cases where delicacy of chest, or nervousness, not
utter jvant of ear, are the bar to singing. But most ladies have
more vocal power than they imagine, and if they could but be
persuaded to sing without the support of the pianoforte, we

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

should hav.e more solid singers than we have at present. But to
return to our little pupils. Write eight bars in this way: —
F first space, G second line, A second space, in semibreves ; then
a semibreve rest ; then A A, G G, F F, all in minims, and two
minim rests. Make the children beat steadily while you point
to the notes, singing them if you possibly can ; if not, playing
them on the piano while the pupils are beating time, and, fixing
their eyes on the slate or paper, say F, G, A, rest ; A A, G G,
FF, rest, rest. You may vary this passage of course at pleasure,
only take care if you sing to begin on a note which will require
no accidental sharp or flat to keep it in the major mode. Y ou
must take as many days as you find necessary to teach the whole
of the rests. I will go on at once to ledger lines, so puzzling to
many a grown-up young lady. If my reader has any imagination
she will think of many ways of divesting these ledger lines of
their mysterious character, but in case she happens to have none,
I will give her a specimen of a good plan of making them plain
to children. Say, “ Fancy nine apples in a row, then three
pears, and then nine more apples.” Write on the slate, as
crotchets, the five lines and four spaces of the bass cleff ; then
write B, C, D, as semibreves, to catch the eye ; and, lastly, the
notes of the treble staff in crotchets ; the whole arranged so as to
form a scale from G first line in bass to F fifth line in treble.
The children will show you the two rows of imaginary apples
and the three pears between them very quickly. Next make
them name each note as you point to it from the lowest to the
highest. Stop when you get to the fifth line in bass, and say,
“ Now w'e have got through our first row of apples.” Then say
(pointing to fifth line), “What is this note?” “A,” they will
reply. What letters follow A?” “ B, C, D.” Stop them there
and say, “ Those are the three pears ; we must learn them
perfectly.” When B, C, D, axe firmly fixed in the memory, point
out that two are spaces and the middle one a note with a line
through it. Impress “ Middle C ” upon their memories; I would
say nothing of any other ledger lines at that lesson. At the

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

next show them G, A, B, C, above the treble stave, and F, E, D, C,
below. If they are quite perfect in running backward as well as
forward with the letters, they will find no difficulty in learning
these notes. At the next lesson you may take them to the
piano. Write on a sheet of music paper the well-known exercise
for the five fingers (such as Herz’s first exercises begin with), but
with this difference, write it for four hands, two in the treble
cleff on one page, and two in the bass. In treble C, third space,
and middle C ; in bass, octave below. Write every note a semi-
breve, and make them count four steady slow beats to each.
Write the same passage twice, and put a double bar with two
dots, and explain that the dots mean repeat. This will make
the exercise played four times. Then write the same passage in
the treble with rests for the bass, followed by rests for the treble
and the passage for bass alone. Having written this before your
pupils, seat one at the piano as “primo ” player, and take the
“ secondo ” part yourself, making the other children stand on
each side of the instrument, and tell them to beat time and look
at the written notes, not the keys. Then play the duet slowly
and steadily, giving the full value of the four beats and the
accent on the first beat of each bar. When your eldest pupil can
execute this passage with ease, give up your own place to the
second child, and make the two little performers get the passage
perfect together. When it goes smoothly let the youngest try
with you, while the other two ’beat time. At the next lesson add
the same notes as minims ; at the next as crotchets, then as
quavers and semiquavers. If you find this beyond the youngest
child, let her listen to her sisters and beat time instead of playing.
Never let a child do anything in a slovenly way. When this
passage is conquered, vary it, by writing it in this way : — The
treble as before (in quavers) ; you may put one bar in groups of
two, and another of four. The bass as a common chord of C,
four crotchets in a bar. Then reverse it, giving the chords to
the first performer and the run to the bass. The sound of this
exercise pleases children. You can tell them that a chord is

A PEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

two or more notes struck at the same instant, and that the full,
lich sound made by a chord is called harmony, while the plea-
sant running sound of the single notes is called melody.

Before concluding, I must warn ladies who have never studied
under a good master, that they should recollect that there is a
proper position for sitting at the instrument, holding the hands,
and moving the fingers. This has all been explained again and
again in books of instruction, from the venerable “ Cramer’s
Instructions” to “Benedict’s Tutor.” The remarks at the
beginning of Czerny’s and Chaulieu’s exercises are valuable to
those who have learnt of a bad teacher. But, for the benefit of
ladies who cannot afford expensive works, I will mention the
chief points to be attended to. Do not sit too close to the instru-
ment, nor mounted up on too high a seat. Let the wrist be
about the same level as the elbow, and generally a trifle higher
than the knuckles, especially for modem music ; but this may
be caricatured, and often is, by players of the Liszt school.
Take care that the hand is placed far enough on the key-board
to enable all the fingers to touch the black notes without altering
their general position, and guard vigilantly against the tendency
to let the thumb strike close to the edge of the notes. Make your
pupils keep the wn&t perfectly they practise the passage

recommended above, and be sure they play with their fingers,
not with their arms. Take care, also, that each finger remains
down till the next strikes, and then is lifted instantly. It often
happens that the sound of “practising” is an aimoyance in a
house. A good deal of this may be saved by exercising the
fingers on a table from ten minutes to a quarter of an hour a day.
To governesses who wish to acquire or retain a brilliant finger
I recommend this kind of practising. I should hardly venture to
enforce much of it with children, for fear of making them hate
their musical studies; but, where there is a large family of
young ladies anxious to improve, and still more anxious (as they
ought to he) not to annoy others, this silent practising will be
found valuable.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC,

CHAPTER IX.

“ Trampled under foot
The daisy lives, and strikes its little root
Into the lap of Time." — Clare,

I set out by declaring that I had no new system of musical
study to offer to the public, but that my object was merely to
place trutlis well known to all good pianists in a clear light
before the general reader. I do not consider it necessary, there-
fore, to follow out my method step by step. The examples I
have given of an easy practical method of instructing beginners
are enough to put any lady who plays passably on the right track
in the way of teaching. Having conducted her pupils as far as
the point at which I left off in my last chapter, she will have no
difficulty in proceeding further without any other directions than
those she will find laid down in all good instruction books. I
strongly recommend amateur teachers who have used my method
up to the above-mentioned point to study the elements of
thorough bass. I do not mean that I advise any lady (unless she
happen to possess a turn for scientific pursuits) to puzzle herself
with the advanced part of the theory of music. All I venture to
recommend is that she should render herself quite at home with
the common chord and chord of dominant 7th, and their inver-
sions ; and that she should be able to play them readily to a
figured bass without making consecutives. A.nd I further advise
communicating this knowledge as soon as gained to her scholars,
for I have observed that children learn the elements of thorough
bass more readily than most grown-up young ladies do, for the
same reason, I suppose that young people find it less irksome to
acquire tables, dates, verbs, &c., when they are beginning their
education than when they are supposed to be “finishing ” it. In
teaching a child thorough bass, be careful to ascertain that the
intervals are firmly established in the pupil’s mind and memory
before you advance another step. The table of intervals is
to music what the multiplication table is to arithmetic. There

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

is no getting on without having it thoroughly at our command,
I do not mean to advise teaching children all the chromatic
intervals. Major and minor 3rd and 7th will be enough for them
at first ; and if they have followed the method developed in the
preceding chapters they will know them without any additional
instruction. Having been accustomed to write 3rds, 5ths, &c.,
they will have no difficulty in writing common chords to a figured
bass. The only error they will fall into will be that of making
consecutive 5ths and octaves. Explain it in this way : — Rule a
stave very wide, and place upon it four small objects, — thimbles,
seals, &c., will do. Place them on lines and spaces, which will
form a common chord. Ask them to move them so as to
form another common chord to the next note higher in the bass ;
then tell them that the rules of harmony forbid notes forming a
5th or 8th to move in the same direction ; consequently that, if
the thimble in the lowest plaee move a step upwards, the thimble
at the top must avoid going the same way. You must illustrate
this by taking common chords on several notes, having one thim-
ble on the lower stave (with bass clef), and the other three on
3rd, 5th, and 8th of upper stave ( with treble clef). When the
pupils can place the thimbles rightly, make them write notes in
their places, and when the writing is conquered take them to the
pianoforte to play from a figured bass. I would not teach them
the chord of the 6th till the common chord is indelibly fixed in the

mind. At first I would write 5 under every chord, to accustom

them to look at the figures ; afterwards they should play the same
exercise with the figures removed. I advise you to show them the
chords of 6th and ^ at first by the figures, which, if they are ready
with the table of intervals, they will name easily. When they
see clearly that a chord of 6th is a note with its 3 and 6, you can
show them the quicker way of finding the inversion by consider-
ing it as common chord of 3rd below. Proceed by the same method
with the chord of ^ and then slowly and gradually take the do-

A- FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

minant 7th and its inversions. But it will be advisable to let the
common chord and its inversions be practised for some weeks be-
fore the discord is mentioned. Let all the early exercises be sim-
ply exercises not tmes. Afterwards chants and well-harmonized
hymns may be added. But it is necessary at first to guard
against pupils playing by ear, and so catching the harmonies by
chance. While cultivating the minds of your scholars, do not
neglect the mechanical exercises for the fingers. If you cannot
afford much time for musical studies, take the thorough bass
every other day, and on those days merely allow the children
to run through the earlier exercises as fast as they can, and, when
the fingers are tired, turn to the theory. But, if two hours a day
for music is not considered too great a sacrifice, it would be best
to cultivate execution in the morning, and to take the headwork
in the afternoon.* Let no one imagine that these studies will
advance a pupil’s musical education alone. Children who study
music in this solid manner will gain clearness of head, memory,
accuracy of eye and ear, dexterity of hand, and an idea of method
and order which will attend them in good stead in after life, and
enable them to pursue other studies with facility.

It is not necessary, as I said before, for me to follow out my
system in all its details. A standard book of instruction, with
some good exercises and studies, will carry your scholars on in the
road to perfect pianoforte-playing, provided correct reading and
steady, careful hand mechanism are attended to in the daily
practising. The course of works for students I prefer to all
others, myself, are Cramer’s. I was taught to venerate them as a
child, my first teacher ( in eveiy sense of the word ), she to whom
I gratefully dedicate this little work, having been one of John
Cramer’s favourite pupils. And I believe I owe a considerable
share of my intense love for classical music (which feeling I look
upon as one of the greatest earthly blessings that has fallen to my

* Children are generally stronger and more inclined for bodily exertion in
the morning, and the strain upon a child’s mind ought at no time, to be harder
than can be easily borne after an early dinner or before it.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC:

lot) to attempting in my childhood to play Cramer’s “ Studio.”
Still I do not think it would answer, in a general way, to allow be-
ginners to attempt music quite beyond their power. Let the
learner go through the whole of Cramer’s “Instructions,” in-
cluding every prelude, all the scales, and most of the exercises ;
then proceed to Cramer’s “ Sequel,” and finally play Bertini’s
“ Exercises,” before attempting the immortal “ Studio” of John
Cramer. But, as pupils generally have a great aversion to being
kept long at one book, selections from standard pianoforte authors
may be introduced as soon as the “Sequel” is mastered. But
I should be inclined to dispense with that deluge of easy “ pieces ”
which it is the habit of some teachers to rain down upon their
pupils. Selections suited to learners from Handel, Mozart,
Haydn, Beethoven, and other classical authors, are to be met
with, if sought for, far better adapted to improve the taste of
students than the ephemeral productions of the day. Mr.
Benedict, Mr. Sterndale Bennett, Mr. Callcott, and other eminent
musicians, have edited a great deal of first-rate pianoforte music
fit for study; and Mr. Novello’s catalogue of church music
includes much that may be played on the pianoforte with advan-
tage as well as pleasure by amateurs of all grades.

I have apparently forfeited my pledge of giving advice to
coimtry ladies wishing to pursue their own musical studies un-
assisted by a master ; but my reason for not having hitherto
addressed myself exclusively to them is this — if they have not
been thoroughly well-grounded, they could not do better than
follow the method I have laid down for beginners. Czerny’s
“Etude de la Velocite, ” or some similar work, should be prac-
tised eveiy day for a few months to gain strength and equality of
finger. Dreyschock’s “ Scales ” will be found very useful to
ladies ambitious of executing perfectly the works of the modem
pianoforte school. A novel feature in Dreyschock’s scales is that
their arrangement ensures calling the student’s attention to two
of the weak points of all ill-instracted players, viz., the passage
of the thumb, and the power of making the hands move rapidly

A PEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

in contrary directions. Kalkbrenner's “Studio” is one of the
best works an amateur can practise. In addition to the great
variety of passage-work, calculated to give firm and neat execu-
tion, there is a solidity of composition, a flow of melody and rich-
ness of harmony, which will assist the student’s power of reading
and improve her taste, A few exercises and studies practised
carefully, till every note is just as it should be, will be found to
do more towards gaining an increase of power than whole books
full played in a slovenly, indolent manner. But the student
must be on her guard against neglecting the art of reading while
taken up with improving her execution. I advise her to vary her
practising of scales and studies, by playing sacred music. If she
is a very bad reader let her begin with chants, which contain no-
thing but chords. Afterwards she can play oratorios and masses,
or rather selections from such compositions. The best speci-
mens of solid composition are the works of Palestrina and his
school, and their modem imitators, the composers of the music
one hears in the English cathedrals. I must repeat here what I
said before, that the quickest way* of learning to play music of
the severe school at sight, is to join a singing class on the
Hullah system.

We will suppose our pupil can strike the common chord of C,
and run the five notes up and down evenly, smoothly, and
rapidly. Now we will take shaiqis and flats. Show them on the
keyboard the black notes, and make them observe that the black
keys are wanting between E and F, and B and C. Make them
ascend the scale from C by semitones. Let them do it slowly
and firmly, saying C,C sharp, D,D sharp, E, F,F sharp, G,G sharp,
A,A sharp, B, C. Most children will say, “ Then there is no E
sharp or B sharp?” “When we want to use E sharp or B sharp,”
you answer, “ we are obliged to take F and C, and call them
E sharp and B sharp.” Any child of inquiring mind will want
an explanation of this ; but you must tell her music is a science

* I mean, of course, in the case of a lady who has been accustomed to play
light music exclusively.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

as well as an art, and that it has in it many things very hard to
understand, and that she must wait till she is grown up to know
the meaning of all the curious things she will meet with in
studying music. Some children will want to know here “ What
is a science and what is an art.” If the teacher be a mother, an
elder sister, a trusted friend of the pupil’s parents, this would be
just one of those many opportunities which will spring out of the
pianoforte lessons for leading the mind of an intelligent child on
to glimpses of sound knowledge. I will not enter upon this
subject now, as I wish to keep to the matter in hand ; and I think,
too, it would be better not to interrupt the music lesson, but to
tell the child that you would answer all her questions at another
time, out walking, or in the evening, or at any time when you
were in the habit of amusing the children by telling them tales
or talking with them.

I do not think the plan of making the hours of study long
answers for girls. It is much better to let them be very short,
but to insist upon close attention while they last. A great deal
may be done to enlarge the mind and cultivate the taste during
the hours given to air and exercise and nominal recreation.
The high-pressure system of female education appears to me to
make a few young ladies walking encyclopedias, and the majority
superficial pretenders. But to return to our music. Having made
your pupil point out readily the sharps, tell her that each of these
sharps is also called a flat, but that the note that is a sharp to D,
for instance, will be flat to E. This is puzzling to some children.
Explain it by the parallel of sister and cousin. Say, “What
relation are you to Anne ? ” (naming her sister.) “ I am her
sister.” “ And what relation are you to Louisa ? ” (naming a
cousin). “ Are cousin and sister the same thing ? And yet you
are only one person, though you are sister to Anne and cousin to
Louisa. Well, it is the same with the flats and sharps. This
note (touching the black key) is sharp to this note, but it is flat to
that one, just as it might be (if some fairy made the three notes
into little girls) sister to one and cousin to the other.” Then

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

make your pupils tell you which is A sharp, which B flat, and so
on till all the flats and sharps are mastered. Then write them,
and teach the childi’en to write them. Ascertain that they can
write C sharp, B flat, or any other given note, without hesitation,
before you proceed. Now for the intervals. Ask what is the
first letter in the alphabet, what the second, what the third. The
children answer unhesitatingly, A is the first, B second, C third.
Then say, in an emphatic way, “ What is the third from A ? ”
They will say C. “ Suppose B stood first, which would be the
third then ? ” “ B C D,” a quick child will answer. “ Then

what is the third from B ? ” “ D.” “ Suppose E were the first,
which would be the third ? ” And so proceed till they can tell
you the third from any given note vdthout hesitation. This done,
return to the piano, and resume the first exercise, playing it very
slowly, without counting. Ask which note is the third. They
will say E. Say, “ Alter the E into E flat, and play the other
note as before,” Ask them if they cannot hear that it has a
mournful sound. Then tell them that the third played that way
is called minor. Tell them minor means less, or smaller, and
show them that from C to E flat is one step less than from C to
E. Then write an exercise with the E flat added, and make
them play the chords and runs in the minor mode. When used
to it let them change to the major, and play either for you un-
hesitatingly. The next step is to make them familiar with the
6th. This may be done immediately by making them observe
the keys as they play the exercise. — They will see where the
little finger comes, and knowing how many fingers they possess,
will feel at once that G is the 5th note from C. Make them
run up and stop at the 5th. Tell them to take off the hand and
put the thumb on G, and begin the exercise on that note (the
left hand following as before). While they are playing it, tell
them they are playing in the key of G, and that the first was the
key of C. Tell them to alter the major 8rd to a minor one. When
this is done well, make them run on to D. Here you will have
to stop, and show them that D to F is the same distance as G to

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

Bb, i.e. a minor 3rd. Make them comprehend clearly that F||
is put to make the 3rd major, and that the black note makes the
interval the same size as a white one did before. When they have
played the exercise in D, major and minor, run on to A, and so
proceed till they have got to the key of C|. When the sharp
keys are perfect, teach them the flat keys in the same way, but
ascending by fourths instead of fifths. You may now explain to
them the scales. Take a narrow strip of cartridge paper and
bend it into the form of a flight of stairs consisting of twelve steps.
On these steps write Cjj, D D^, E F, F;j|, G GjJ, A A||, B C.
Hold it lightly between the finger and thumb of the left hand in
such a manner that the bottom step should rest on the table.
Then with your pencil touch each step in turn, beginning with
the table itself as the starting point, and ascending step by step
to the top. Tell the children to fancy the point of your pencil is
a person going up a flight of steps, and then, as you touch each,
utter the letters given above, making C the starting point. My
reason for beginning on the table is to show them at a glance that
there are twelve semitones in the octave, and thirteen notes, count-
ing the first and eighth. This ladder will make them perceive
what a semitone is very readily. Then make them point and
repeat the letters, and you at the same moment strike each cor-
responding note on the piano. Make them keep their eyes on the
ladder at first, and listen to the sounds of the semitones. After-
wards show them to them on the instrument. Explain that semi
means half, reminding them of the semi-quavers. Then go
back to the table or the ladder, and explain the chromatic scale
as consisting entirely of semitones, and afterwards the diatonic,
consisting of tones and semitones, in the following order : — “ Two
tones and a semitone, three tones and a semitone.” Repeat this
sentence emphatically like an axiom, and let them learn it by
heart. Then make your pencil ascend the ladder diatonically,
i.e. skipping the sharps, and so ascending in the key of C major.
Make them repeat the letters, looking at the steps as your pencil
touches them, and afterwards “ tone, tone, semitone : tone, tone,

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

tone, semitone.” You will observe here the advantage of starting
from the table, as from the ground in ascending a ladder. When
this is all clear, go to the piano and play to them the diatonic scale
in C major. As they have not yet learnt to put the thumb under,
reserve the playing the scale themselves, till the next lesson.
Point out to them the two tones and the half tone, the three
tones and the half tone ; make them tell you between which in-
tervals of the scale the semitones fall. As they are already
familiar with thirds and fourths, they will find out sevenths and
eighths vnthout trouble. At the next lesson, let D be the start-
ing note, and write upon the ladder D||, &c. The children will
soon see, that to preserve the order of “ Two tones and a semi-
tone ; three tones and a semitone,” they must use F| and C;|.
Do not take them to the piano, till they have made this dis-
covery by means of the ladder. That accomplished, the whole
difficulty of sharps and flats disappears at once. By making E
the key note they will find out that four sharps are wanted, and
so on. This is as interesting as a joining map or Chinese puzzle,
when well managed. The order of the sharps they will learn
insensibly from their daily practising of the exercise I pointed
out before, viz : running to the fifth and beginning afresh ;
bearing in mind that one sharp is added each time. Before pro-
ceeding to the minor mode, I would make the pupils write the
scales, marking the tones and half tones ; and the sharps before
the notes. Afterwards I would show them that to save trouble,
the sharps belonging to each key are put at the beginning of the
stave, and this is called the signature. They should then learn
to make a natural, and be told that when notes not belonging to
the diatonic scale occurred in a melody, the sharp, flat or natural
required wdll be marked close before the note, and that these are
called Accidental, as they come in ly accident, not belonging
properly to the key. This sounds obscure in words, but with a
sheet of music paper and a piano it can be made easy to a child.
If all that I have now laid down has been ihc/rongUy mastered,
you may congratulate yourself on having laid your foundations.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

Do not go beyond this till it is conquered. Some children would
gain all this in a few weeks, others would take as many months.
Do not be disheartened if your pupil’s hands are awkward, her ear
bad, her head confused. Have patience and spirit and you vnll
make her play well in the long run, and, what is of more con-
sequence, give her habits of perseverance, industry, method and
good humour.

CHAPTEE X.

“ Then pours she on the Christian heart
That warning, still and deep,

At which high spirits of old would start
Even from their Pagan sleep.

Just guessing through their murky blind,

Few, faint, and baffling sight.

Streaks of a brighter heaven behind
A cloudless depth of light.

Such thoughts, the wreck of Paradise
Through many a dreary age.

Upbore whate’er of good and wise
Yet lived in bard or sage.” — Christian Year.

“ The heavens are telling, high and wide
The glory of the Lord,

The firmament and deeps of air
His handy-work record.

Day speaks to day, — a gushing fount
Of praise that cannot fail ;

Day unto day, and night unto night.

Tells out the wondrous tale.

No sound, no converse ; all unheard
The solemn voice they send.

Their line goes out o’er all the earth.

Their words to the world’s end.”

Keble’s Translation of the Psalms.

Having pointed out what I conceive to be the true principles of
musical study, and the best method of carrying them out,
practically, which can be adopted by ladies, my concluding

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

chapters shall be devoted to a slight sketch of the history of
music, and of the different schools the art possesses.

The ancient traditions of all nations unite in asserting that
music is of divine origin; and let not evidence from such a
source be despised. The heathen mythology, among its cor-
rupt fables, still retained scattered relics of truth. The law of
nature, though obscured, was not entirely lost. The noble-
minded Athenians who erected an altar to “ the unknown God ”
deserved that the great apostle of the Gentiles should declare
to them Him whom they “ ignorantly worshipped.” Nor did
St. Paul disdain to make use of a quotation from one of their
own poets, to lead them on from the dim twilight of ima-
gination to the noonday brightness of faith. And among the
many truths which the law of nature had graven deeply upon
the heathen mind, was this most beautiful one, that what we, in
our modern jargon, call “high art,” was neither more nor less
than an emanation from the Divinity. Surely there is nothing
overstrained in saying that the myth which personifies the Sun,
and makes him the author of the science of healing as well as
of the fine arts, bears a shadowy resemblance to the poetical
figure in the New Testament, whereby our Lord, the source
of light, health, strength, and beauty, is represented as the
“ Sun of Eighteousness, with healing in his wings.” And there
is something touching in the thought that the Lord’s-day has
been made to fall upon Sunday.

Classic lore contains much that may be made to bear a
mystical allusion to Christian truth, and to those who love
symbolism ; these coincidences, not to use too strong a word,
produce upon the mind the same sort of pleasure which a
musical ear receives from a singular modulation or an unex-
pected harmony. I am perfectly aware that there is a tendency
in the present day to make an idol of art — to make her the
queen where she ought to be the handmaid ; and I know, too,
that minds of a class who, under other influences, would be
remarkable for heavenward aspirations, are by this most subtle

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

and refined species of idolatry chained down to earth. No
doubt a love of aesthetics is dangerous, unless it be rightly
directed and kept under proper controul; but we must not
blame the noble steeds of the Sun for the fate of the rash
Phaeton. And what is there that may not be abused ? —

“ As in this bad world below,

Noblest things find vilest using.”

So need we not marvel when we see lofty minds grovelling in
the mire of earthliness. Still the art-worship of the present
day is a more hopeful sign of the times than is its mammon-
worship, and its blind and senseless adoration of fashion. High
art has principles founded on never-changing truth ; it has views
which cannot be made to coalesce with vulgarity and sordid
baseness, and it gives to its follow'ers habits of thought and a
tone of feeling, incompatible with paltry tastes and littleness of
mind. Those whose imaginative faculties have been checked
in the bud, by the nipping frost of a false system of education,
may see, in the language of the aesthetic writers of our day,
nothing but insane extravagance or childish folly; but those
who believe that a love of what is “transcendental” is a gift
from heaven, will recognise in those morbid aspirations the
soul’s restless craving after the true and the perfect, — the thirst
of an immortal spirit for the source of its being.

They who take this view, will look with tender compassion on
the idolatry of Nature and Art, which is one of the character-
istics of a very high class of minds in our own times ; but, on the
imaginings and reasonings of the poets and sages of the classical
ages, they will look, not only with pity, but with reverential
admiration : —

“ The olive wreath, the ivied wand,

The sword in myrtles drest,

Each legend of the shadowy strand
Now wakes a vision blest ;

As little children lisp, and tell of heaven,

So thoughts, beyond their thoughts, to those high Bards were given.”

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

It is worthy of remark, that the Pagan music, to which the
classical poets and philosophers have attributed divim power, was
the most ancient music, and that instead of improving as time
went on and civilization increased, this art, according to the
testimony of the Greek and Eoman widters, soon deteriorated,
and at last was entirely lost. This would accord perfectly with
what we know of the gradual obscuration of the law of Nature,
and the consequent loss of true traditions, which ended in Pagan
idolatry of the grossest kind. The Fathers have held that
Paganism preserved certain true traditions, which enabled those
who loved truth and goodness, and who earnestly devoted them-
selves to seeking the one and practising the other, to raise their
souls above the grovelling ideas of ordinary heathenism. Socrates
and Plato, Numa, Virgil, Trajan, Pliny, Marcus Aurelius, and
others too numerous to instance, are types of this order of minds.
Perhaps it is hardly just to put Plato and Pliny in the same class ;
still there was sufficient elevation, both moral and intellectual,
in the favorite of Trajan to raise him far above the common level.
Some Protestant Divines have agreed with Catholic Doctors on
the fact that the Sibylline books contained real prophecies.
Leslie in his “ Short Method with Deists,’’ quotes Virgil’s well-
known ode to Pollio, containing a prophecy from the Sibyls,* as
a strong argument in favour of revelation. In the middle ages
this was acknowledged by giving the Sibyls a place of eccle-
siastical honour. In medioeval works of art, one frequently finds
them introduced: and in the “Dies Irse” they are distinctly
alluded to : — “ Testit David cum Sibylla.”

I recollect once reading a sermon by the famous Scotch
preacher who founded the sect of the Irvingites, in which there is
a very striking and eloquent passage on the Greek philosophers.

* This is my impression, but I am not sure whether Leslie does not
suppose tlie Sibylline prophecies to have been borrowed from the Old
Testament,

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

acknowledging that their earnest and disinterested love of truth,
drew upon them light from above : — ‘

“ From art, from nature from the schools,

Let random inflences glance,

Like light in many a shiver’d lance
That breaks about the dappled pools :

The lightest wave of thought shall lisp.

The fancy’s tenderest eddy wreathe.

The slightest air of song shall breathe
To make the sullen surface crisp.”

I have endeavoured to give all possible weight to the authority
of mere antiquity, for this reason, that the Holy Scriptures do not
afford any decisive testimony on this point. True, they do not
contradict the opinion I am supporting, and we can find in them
much of what I may be allowed to call, in Paley’s language,
“ auxiliary evidence.” The historical account they give of the
invention of Music amounts merely to the fact that Jubal, sixth
in descent from Cain, “ was the father of all such as handle the
harp and organ.” This statement, I must allow, is not particu-
larly favourable to my argument, as the name of Cain is enough
to cast discredit upon his descendant. At the same time, it must
be allowed that nothing is recorded against Jubal. — But it is on
the auxiliary evidence that I mainly rely. By this auxiliary
evidence, I mean, the instances we find in Holy Scripture of
music being used not only in formal religious ceremonies, but
also, as a spontaneous effusion of the heart on occasions of
thanksgiving, such as the songs of Moses and Miriam. When
Saul met the company of prophets coming down from the high
place, there went before them “ a psaltery, a pipe, and a harp,”
and at that time, be it remembered, they were under the
influence of the Holy Ghost, for they prophesied.

Again, it is very plain that when Holy David drove the fiend
from the heart of Saul, it was inspired music, and not inspired
words, to which the power of exorcism was granted. Holy
Scripture is explicit on this point : — When David “ played with

A FEAV WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

his hand,” the evil spirit departed from Saul. The Jews*
excelled all other nations in their skill in music. Their extra-
ordinary musical power was known to surrounding nations, for
in their captivity their conquerors required of them a song,
saying, “ Sing us one of the Songs of Sion.”

Mr. Nathan, in his “ Essay on the Theory and Practice of
Music,” asserts that the Chant in which the Psalms are sung in
the Synagogue, has been handed down, by tradition, from remote
antiquity, and that it is the very same that Moses received on
Mount Sinai, together with the design of the Tabernacle. He
says that this Chant was “ handed down from father to son, till
about the fifth century, when Kabbi Ben Asser invented certain
characters to represent the accent and true tone that was given
to each word, by which means the original chant has been
preserved to this day.” In Dr. Crotch’s Specimen of the Music
of all Nations, some Hebrew Chants of great antiquity, noticed by
Marcello, are given.|

It is certain, that in the beginning. Almighty God gave to
man a single universal tongue, though modem languages are
traced to three primitive roots instead of one. Reasoning from
analogy, it is probable that all primitive music was derived from
that revelation which Father Martini holds to have been granted
to Adam. If so, the older the art, the nearer the Divine Source ;
which accords perfectly with the heathen traditions of the golden
age. And this would agree, too, with the view that ancient
music, both Jewish and Pagan, were much alike. Afterwards,
it is probable, the Pagans lost the unearthly character of the
primitive art, by heaping meretricious ornaments upon it, and
bringing it down to a level with their idolatrous rites, while the

* It is remarkable that the Jews have retained their talent for music, as
strikingly as their peculiar cast of countenance, to this day.

t Not to he guilty of anything so shabby as affecting familiarity with books
one has not read, I beg to state that the information respecting the Hebrew
Chants is taken from an anonymous Tract (published by Cradock) which has
given me many useful hints.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

Jews retained it, in its pristine majesty and purity, by means of
the unalterable forms of the solemn worship of the Temple.
Many hold that the Gregorian Song is actually the modem
representative of the ancient inspired Jewish music.

“ My vows to Israel’s King
Make haste to let me pay,

’Mid all his people bring
Mine homage due to day :

In His own courts, His holy ground.

Thy bulwarks, Salem, glittering round.”

“ O clap your hands together every nation ;

Sing to the Lord with voice of melody ;

God is most high, of dread and awful station ;

A mighty King o’er all the earth is He.

Now join’d in one, the lords all nations swaying,

One nation seal'd to Abraham’s God draw nigh ;

God is alone, the shields of earth arraying,

God is alone, lift up exceeding high.”

Keble’s Translation.

CHAPTER XI.

“ In exitu Israel de Egitto.

Cantavan tutti ’nsieme ad una voce.

Can quanto di quel Salmi h poi scritto.” — Dante.

“ Beautiful times ! times past! When men were not
The smooth and formal things they are to-day.

When the world travelling an uneven way.

Encountered greater truths in every lot.

And individual minds had power to force
An epoch, and divert its vassal course.

Beautiful times ! times past ! in whose deep art.

As in a field by angels furrowed, lay
The seeds of heavenly beauty ; set apart
For altar-flowers, and ritual display —

Beautiful times 1 from whose calm bosom sprung
Abbeys and chantries, and a very host
Of quiet places upon every coast,

Where Christ was served, and blessed Mary sung! ” — Faber.

Whether the primitive Christians employed the music of the

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

Jews, or that of the Pagans, in their religious worship, is a
point much debated among musical antiquaries. I believe Father
Martini’s view on this subject,, is in favour of the adoption
of the Hebrew music. It seems most probable, that this would
be the case for several reasons. The first Christians were all
of Jewish birth, and would, naturally, be attached to the re-
ligious music they had been accustomed to. The Christian
Church was the development of the Jewish. Both were
founded by the same Divine hand, and hear marks of a com-
mon origin. In proof of this assertion I need only cite the
fact, that the Psalms and other portions of the Old Testament
form the chief share of the devotional exercises of the Christian
Church to this day. The Jewish psalmody being then retained,
is it likely that the Christians would sever the poetry of holy
David from the inspired music to which it had ever been united ?
Is is likely that the Jewish converts would prefer, to the chants
which had been sung in Solomon’s Temple, the melodies which
had resounded through the streets of heathen cities in honour
of Bacchus and Cybele ? Music has always held a high place
>in the semces of the Christian Church. Even while the faithful
formed but a small persecuted sect, meeting by stealth to cele-
brate the sacred rites, they sung hymns. And, as soon as
Christianity was established as the religion of the empire, by
Constantine the Great, Church Music was carefully cultivated,
choirs were formed, and a place assigned to them in the
churches — as Eusebius says, “ The rites of the Church were
decent and majestic, and there was a place appointed for those
who sang psalms.” By the middle of the fourth century it
had become customary to divide the choirs, placing one on
each side of the Church, and these choirs answered each other
by singing alternate verses of the Psalms. Whether this waS
taken from the Jewish services, or suggested by the choruses
in the Greek Drama, I cannot tell. All knowledge of the
ancient Greek music had been lost long before the birth of
our Lord. Plutarch complains that in his time the art had

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

degenerated — bore no resemblance to the ancient style which
he declares to have been divine. — Plato and Aristotle speak of
music as possessed of heavenly power, and proper on that account
to be used as an instrument of civilization and education. Father
Martini is of opinion that Adam was endowed with the gift of song,
as well as the gift of speech, by his Creator. And if so, the hea-
venly tradition would be handed down, together with the law of
nature, to his descendants, and disappear gradually, as the light
of truth was first dimmed, and finally quenched, when men forgot
God. But to return from speculations to historical facts, about
the year 386, St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, began his famous
reformation of ecclesiastical music. He reduced the art of chant-
ing to a regular system, which was called after him the Cantus
Ambrosianus, or Ambrosian Chant. This Chant is sung in the
Cathedral of Milan to this day. St. Ambrose, who was a classical
scholar, made use of the Greek musical terms, calling the modes
or scales, on which his Chants were formed, the Dorian, Phrygian,
AHolian, and Mixo-Lydian Modes. This has caused some wi’iters
to imagine that he adopted the Greek music, — a most unlikely
thing, if the Jewish music had been used in the Christian Church
for nearly 400 years, and the ancient Greek art lost for centuries.
Still it is not impossible that he may have taken some hints from
the Greek music, for it is certain that he made great improve-
ments both in the music and the method of singing. St. Austin
speaks of being melted into tears and raised heaven-wards by the
sounds of this psalmody.

The next great musical reformer we meet with is St. Gregory the
Great, who filled the Pontifical chair from a.d. 590 to a.d. 604.
During the fifth century ecclesiastical music greatly degenerated.
— The airs of the theatre were allowed to find their way into the
ehurch, and religious music was divided into the Canto fermo,
the old severe style, and the Canto jigurato, which was light and
florid. St. Gregory forbade this wordly music to be used in the
churches, but to make up for its loss, he improved the ancient
religious music. He gave greater variety to the Ambrosian Chant

A FEW WOKDS ABOUT MUSIC.

by introducing four new modes, and this reform of St. Gregory’s
has been in use in the Catholic Church ever since, The eight
tones to which Vespers and the other offices are still sung,
commonly go by the name of the Gregorian Chants. St. Gregory
paid great attention to the manner of singing, as well as to the
music sung, and he established a school for singing at Kome,
where orphan boys were trained as choristers. Originally, the
letters of the Greek alphabet were employed as musical signs.
“ St. Gregory,” says Baini, “ ordered that in the Latin Church
the song should be no longer noted with Greek letters, but with
Latin in their stead.” His method was to denote the lowest
octave by the capital letters A, B, C, D, E, F, G ; the second by
a, b, c, d, e, f, g; and the third by these letters doubled.

Early in the eleventh century another great benefactor to art
arose. This was the celebrated Guido d’ Arezzo ( Aretinus) who in-
vented musical notation. He was a native of Arezzo, and became
a monk, according to the general opinion, in the monastery of
Pomposa. The Camaldolese annalists are of opinion that he lived
for some time in their monastery of S. Croce di Avellano, and per-
haps also in the Camaldolese hermitage, near Arezzo, The only
grounds for these conjectures of the good fathers are as follows.
First, because Guido, in a letter to the monk Michele, calls him-
self ‘‘Homo Alpestre,” which name would better suit a monk
of Avellano, than of Pomposa ; Avellano being situated upon the
Alps. Secondly, because a celebrated portrait of Guido adorned
the refectory of the Monastery of Avellano. And lastly, because
the name of a “ Guido Camaldolese Eremite near Arezzo, in the
year 1033,” is to be found in some record. Tiraboschi gives us
all these particulars in his usual communicative style, and then
informs us that it is his opinion that the Camaldolese annalists’
reasons were worth very little, compared with the weight of evi-
dence in favour of the claims of Pomposa. But as I profess to be
writing about music, and music alone, I must not allow myself to
be cai’ried away by Tiraboschi’s interesting antiquarian gossip.
One thing, though, I will mention, for the sake of encouraging

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

those who find themselves opposed when they attempt any musi-
cal reforms. Guido’s new method of notation gave great offence
to many of his religious brethren, and raised a clamour against
him in the convent. There is nothing new under the sun. An
original idea will always displease the multitude, until time and
authority have set their seal upon it. Tiraboschi conjectures that
the monk Michele, to whom Guido wrote letters still extant, was
his coadjutor in teaching the new method of reading music to the
youths in the monastery, and that when his illustrious brother
was driven, by the outcry raised against him, from the monastery,
Michele remained behind “ma travagliate e afflitto” Guido
found his way to Rome, where he met with a most honourable re-
ception. Pope John XIX. appreciated the genius of Guido, and
gave him every possible encouragement. The Sovereign Pontiff
learnt the new system of singing at sight, in one lesson, which is
not at all surprising, when we consider that a child would acquire
it in a month, and that the Pope was doubtless skilled in the old
system. Guido Aretinus is commonly called the inventor of
musical notes, but that is not an accurate definition of what he
did for art. Notes had been substituted for the Greek and Latin
letters more than two centuries before Guido’s time. Baini says,
“ it is certain that as early as Charlemagne’s reign, the Roman
song was written with notes and not with the letters prescribed by
St. Gregory. But these notes were of very little use, for they had
neither lines nor cleffs, and they did not mark the respective dis-
tance of one note from another, that is, they go up and down
just the same, whether the interval they express is a tone or a
semitone — nay, there is often no discoverable difference between a
third, a fourth and a fifth. In the course of years the traditional
memory of the melodies was partly obliterated, so that no cer-
tainty could be said to exist, and each master of a choir taught
his singers the song according to his own manner of interpreting
it. Hence arose incessant disputes, not only among masters, but
between teachers and scholars, till there might be said to be as
many modes of executing the song, as there were singers. Va-

A FEW W'OEDS ABOUT MUSIC.

rious attempts were made to remedy this state of musical anarchy,
but without success. — About the end of the ninth century,
Hucbald, a monk, invented new signs, by which the seven
sounds of the scale, comprising the two semitones might be ex-
pressed with certainty, by means of their different position. Oddo,
Abbot of Cluni, seeing that Hucbald’s method was not popular,
endeavoured to induce singers to discard the new signs for the
old Roman letters of St. Gregory’s system. The Abbot, in the
dialogue on music, informs us that “ according to the method then
in vogue, of writing musical notes, no singer could hope to suc-
ceed in learning to sing by themselves any musical composition,
even after fifty years study and practice ! ” I do not understand
what Hucbald’s improvements were, but the Abbot of Cluni, is
alluding to a system of putting down mere notes, without letters,
cleffs, or lines. Guido d’ Arezzo is even harder upon the old

system than the Abbot, for he calls it “ a method which will not
enable a singer, even afte,r a hundred years study, to sing the small-
est antiphon by himself.” He says again, “ Who does not
deplore the existence of so much confusion in the church, that we
should be found disputing with each other, when we ought to be
.singing the divine office. The master and the pupils disagree,
and there are as many antiphonaries as there are masters. So that
we no longer hear of the Antiphonary of Gregory, but that of
Leo, Albert, or any other, and as it is already very difficult to
learn one, it is certainly impossible to learn a great many.” He
means because so much had to be learned and retained by heart.

Guido proposed to keep the signs which they were accustomed
to, but to place them in a regular order, by means of lines, on and
between which he placed the notes, and thus fixed the respective
distances of the intervals, next by placing the Roman letters of
St. Gregory at the beginning of each line ( which answered the
purpose of cleffs) he determined the place of the semitone. We
are told that this plan was so easy to understand that “ etiam
pueruli sine magistro recte possunt cantare.”

Guido’s invention was adopted at Rome, after the trial the Pope

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

was pleased to make of it, and the rest of Italy soon followed the
example of Rome. One often hears it most absurdly asserted
that Guido “suddenly discovered the gamut ! ’’ by accidentally
noticing the first syllables of a hymn, while singing in choir.

M. Fetis’ account is as follows : —

“ The invention of the syllables ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la, is attri-
buted to an Italian monk, whose name was Guido d’ Arezzo, who
took them from a hymn in honour of St. John.

“ UT queant luxis, REsonare fibris,

Mira gestorum FAmuli tuorum,

SoLve polluti, LAbri reatum ;

Sancte Joannes,”

But in a letter to another monk, Guido merely advises him to
recollect the air of this hymn, which rises one note on each sylla-
ble,— ut, re, mi, &c., in order to find the tone of each degree of
the scale.” Those who have studied Guido’s invention, will
easily understand this. It is evident that the tune to which the
hymn was sung in Guido’s monastery began on what a modem
singer would call Do, that the sixth note was Re, the first note in
the second line of the verse Mi, and so on. In Gregorian hymn
tunes, one usually finds a note for each syllable, and it is easy
enough, by means of a little alteration, to make some of the plain
chant hymns take the form I am supposing this tune to have had.
Probably the gamut accidentally occuring in its natural order in
this melody, strack Guido as a ready means of explaining the
scale. Whether he made use of the syllables ut, re, mi, &c.,
constantly from that time foi’ward, or whether they were en-
grafted into his system afterwards, I do not know. For the main
part of the information respecting Guido’s method contained in
this chapter, I am indebted to an article in the Dublin Review.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

CHAPTEE XII.

“As great Pythagoras of yore,

Standing beside the blacksmith’s door,

And hearing the hammers as they smote
The anvils with a different note,

Stole from the varying tones, that hung
Vibrant on every iron tongue.

The secret of the sounding wire,

And formed the seven-chorded lyre.” — Longfellow.

“ The great ennobling Past is only then
A misty pageant, an unreal thing.

When it is measured in the narrow ring

And limit of the Present, by weak men.” — Faber.

Though Guido d’ Arezzo’s invention enabled the musicians
of the middle ages to note music with accuracy, yet we do not
find that it had the effect of producing that perfect unanimity
in church choirs which he anticipated. Baini says, “ it did not
quickly pass beyond the Alps. I have myself seen in our
libraries at Eome, several MSS. written in France and Ger-
many, of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, in the ancient
notation.” There is a celebrated MS. called the Plaints or
Sequences of Abelard, which antiquaries have endeavoured to
decipher in vain. It is written in the barbarous notation used
before Guido’s time, though Abelard must have composed it
at least a hundred years after the new method had been adopted
throughout Italy.

It cannot be ascertained whether Abelard composed the music
as the verses of these “ Plaints.” Baini inclines to the opinion
that he wrote a poem on subjects drawn from the Holy Scriptures,
and in measures adapted to the popular airs sung by the Trouba-
dours, in order to serve as an antidote to the fascination of the
ballad-poetry then in vogue, a good deal of which was not of a
moral tone, to say no worse of it. Baini advances this supposition
as one way of accounting for Abelard’s MS. being written in the
old notation, for if he merely wrote the words, the copyist of

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 63

the music would probably have transcribed the melodies as he
found them in older books. These airs are unfortunately lost
to us, for how can one discover sounds expressed by mere notes
without lines or clefs? Baini says, “whoever has the pre-
sumption to imagine he has recovered them, is as great a
fool as he who should go about to draw water from a deep well
without a rope.”

I am inclined to think that the melodies of the Troubadours
were not unlike the hymns of the plain song, and for these
reasons. The ancient national melodies of most countries have
a sort of family likeness. Dr. Lind, who resided a long time
in China, told Dr. Burney that “ all the airs heard there, were
like the old Scots’ tunes.” And the same has been said of the
melodies of several other nations. That great inclination for
the minor mode, characteristic of ancient music, is to be found
equally in the secular and ecclesiastical music : — in such airs as
“ Roslin Castle,” “ Rich and rare,” “ Follia d’Espagna,” and
other ancient tunes, one can trace a strong resemblance to Gre-
gorian music. There is an “ Iste Confessor,” * well known in
England long before the recent movement in favour of Plain
Chant became fashionable, which always reminds me of “ Vive
Henri Quatre.” I do not mean to say that the two airs are
alike in the same sense that many modem ballads and polkas
are alike, but still there is a resemblance in the opening bars.
They resemble each other as Handel’s “Let me wander not
unseen,” resembles Corelli’s “ Pastorale” in the eighth Concerto,
and as the Martial Movement in the grand Quartett in “ Le
Prophfete,” resembles the “Marseillaise.” I will mention another
coincidence. — Every one knows the popular ballad in Robert le
Diable, “ Jadis regnait en Normandie.” It is natural to sup-
pose that Meyerbeer aimed at imitating the songs of the Trouba-
dours in that melody, and the first part of it is very like
the well known Gregorian tune to which “ Te lucis ante termi-
num” is usually sung. Observe I do not say “ Jadis regnait ” is
* Published by Mr. Novello.

A PEW WOEBS ABOUT MUSIC.

copied from “ Te lucis,” for the subjects of the two airs are quite
distinct, and there is an appliance of the resources of modem
art in the one which the other is without. But for all that
they have the same character, just as Mr. Tennyson’s “Morte
d’ Arthur,” though a poem of great originality and exquisite
polish, reminds one of the metrical tales of the old romance
writers. The resemblance is similar to those striking likenesses
one sometimes sees in living individuals, to the old family por-
traits hanging upon the walls of their ancestral dwelling-places.
I am inclined to think that many of the old tunes, popular in
the different countries of Europe, are really the very melodies of
the Troubadours and Minnesingers. And this does not at all
militate against what I have advanced with regard to the like-
ness to Gregorian, for it is a mistake to suppose that the Plain
Chant is invariably mournful and grave. Many of the hymns
are very joyous — indeed, some are what one may call Ttierry
tunes, — and though the minor key predominates, yet the major
is to be found too. I have not, within reach, works which would
enable me to pursue the interesting subject of the progress of
secular music during the middle ages. Besides, I do not profess
to be writing a complete treatise, but merely suggesting ideas,
which can be followed out by those among my fair readers,
who have a taste for research, and the means of indulging it.
I would point out, as an interesting study, tracing the origin
of the Irish, Scotch, and Welsh airs. Those who delight in Miss
Strickland’s antiquarian details, will be glad to discover another
path in the pleasant mazes of by-gone times. Assistance in
pursuing such inquiries can be procured easily now-a-days,
through the corresponding columns of musical periodicals.

The introduction of harmony is as important an event in
the history of music, as the discovery of America in the history
of geogi’aphical science. It has been warmly debated, whether
the ancients had any knowledge of harmony. M. Fetis, in
his valuable work, “Music explained to the world,” is of opinion
that they were entirely ignorant of it. His reasons for this

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

conclusion, are as follows: — “ The equivalent of the word har-
mony is nowhere to be found used in the Greek and Latin
treatises which have reached our times; the air of an ode of
Pindar, and that of a hymn to Nemesis, with some other frag-
ments, are all that have been preserved of the ancient Greek
music, and in them we find no traces of chords; in fact, the
fonn of the lyre and of the harp, the small number of their
strings, which could not be modified like those of our guitars,
those instruments being devoid of neck, all these reasons, I
say, give much probability to the opinion of those who do not
believe in the existence of harmony in the music of the ancients.
Their adversaries object that harmony exists in nature. True,
but how many things exist in nature which are not observed
for a long time ? Harmony is in nature, and yet the ear of
the Turk, the Arab, and the Chinese, has not become accustomed
to it.” Now this last remark appears to me shallow. The
Turks, Arabs, and Chinese have not produced works of art,
which are standards of perfection to this day. It is really quite
irreverent, so coolly to put these barbarians on a level with the
Greeks. It seems contrary to analogy to suppose that the land
which produced poets, sculptors, and philosophers, whom the
wisest and most refined among the modems are content to
acknowledge, gratefully, as their teachers and models, should
have made no greater discoveries in music than nations which are
still in a state of semi-bai'barism. On the other hand, I
must own, that however imwilling one’s fancy may be to admit
such a supposition, yet that the evidence adduced by M. Fetis,
mth regard to the classical instraments and musical treatises
extant, is very strong against the poetical view. But again,
let us consider that the treatises quoted were written between
the time of Alexander, and the end of the Greek Empire, and
that Plutarch and others mourn over the degenerate state of
music in their days, and declare that the ancient art was entirely
lost. That there are “ no traces of chords ” to be found in the
specimens of Greek music handed down to us, proves nothing.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

and for these reasons : — first, the art of singing might exist in
great perfection, before the art of writing the sounds sung was
invented. Poetry sprung “ Pallas-bom,” from the lips of Homer,
long before grammar and rhetorie were studied. Why may it
not have been the same with the sister-art ?

Secondly ; it should be remembered that when musical nota-
tion first began to be used, after the Christian era, it was of a
very imperfeet kind, and a traditional explanation from the
mouth of a skilful singer, was necessary to the full under-
standing of its meaning. I have not seen the specimens of
Pagan* music alluded to, nor have I been able to meet with any
detailed account of them, therefore I am arguing in the dark ;
but it seems probable they might be a species of musical short-
hand, just as the early attempts at notation were. Had Greek
music possessed no more art than we find in the rude melodies
of barbarous nations, it is difficult to believe that the classic poets
and sages would have given it so high a place as they did among
intellectual attainments. And it is equally difiicult to imagine that
a people so exquisitely organized as the Greeks, and with whom
poetry and song were almost synonymous terms, should be de-
ficient in genius for music. It is improbable that a nation which
produced a Pindar, an ^schylus, and a Phidias, should be, in
musical feeling, on a level with Scythians and Tartars. They,
however, whose faith in “ Immortal Greece, dear land of glorious
lays,” cannot be shaken by want of drcumstantial evidence, have
no right to expect others, of a less imaginative turn, to yield
their opinion, in the absence of historical proof, and so the
matter must always remain an open question. It is impossible
too, to discover the nature of the ancient instruments. Vitruvius
mentions an hydraulic organ, said by ancient writers to have been
invented by Ctesibius, a mathematician who lived in the time of
Ptolemy Evergetes. M. Fetis speaks with scorn of the efforts
of some learned commentators, who have tried in vain to discover

* I have no other authority for the genuineness of the professed specimen
of Greek music, than the passing remark upon them in M. Fetis’ book.

A FEW WOKDS ABOUT MUSIC.

the mechanism of this water organ.* He laughs, too, at the
pneumatic organ of the Classic poets, which, he thinks, must
have been neither more nor less than that barbarous instrament
of the Scotch and Auvergnese, called the bag-pipe or comemme.
I do not see why it may not have been an .^olian Harp, if all
we know of it is, that it was “ put in vibration by the action of
the air.” I am, unfortunately, no scholar, and, therefore, I can-
not refer to the original description of this serial instrument ; but,
in the absence of all proof, one may take the liberty of fancying
it something more poetical than a bag-pipe ; and, certainly, it is
no great matter what one believes upon the subject. “ The most
ancient organ mentioned in history, is that which the Emperor
Constantine Copronymus sent, in the year 757, to Pepin, the
father of Charlemagne. This was the first seen in France.
It was placed in the church of St. Corneille, at Compiegne.
This organ was very small and portable, like that which was
built by an Arab named Giafar, and sent to Charlemagne by the
Caliph of Bagdad.” — So says M. Fetis, but, in another writer,
I find mention made of an organ nearly a century earlier than
the oriental present received by King Pepin. — It is said that
Pope Vitalian introduced the organ into the Church as early
as 671. This was soon followed by part-singing. At first the
Chant was harmonized for two voices only, but, by degrees, the
third, fourth, and more parts were added. The first name given
to Harmony was, oddly enough. Discord. No doubt is was given
in opposition to the term Concord, which might naturally be
applied to singing in unison. The earliest forms of Harmony
were all written in notes of equal value or duration. Harmony
was also called Counterpoint, or point against point. The next
improvement was introducing notes of unequal duration played
or sung together, and this was called jigvred harmony. Franco
of Cologne ( 1020 to 1066 ) was the first writer who treats of
measured notes. In his time the notation comprised the double

♦ This reminds one of the water-clock which Haroun al Raschid is said to
have sent to Charlemagne.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

long, imperfect long, the breve, and the semibreve, with points
to prolong their duration, and corresponding rests.

How simple a thing is Science, and how little that is entirely
new, has been added by the modems, to the grand discoveries of
the ancients. Think of the multiplication table of Pythagoras,
Euclid’s Elements, the experiments of Archimedes, and the
mental gymnastics of Aristotle and Plato. What are modem
additions after all, compared to the everlasting foimdations of all
knowledge, laid down by the Giants of old time 1 And it is
the same with Art. Michael Angelo and Eaffaelle owe even
a deeper debt to Phidias than Cimabue and Giotto did. Dante
acknowledges Virgil as his guide, and what does not Virgil owe
to Homer ? It is the height of ingratitude and self-conceit in
the Modems to forget what has been done for them by the
Ancients. But it is only the half-educated who do so. The
ignorant cannot, the shallow will not, reflect on the past. The
present is enough for their purpose. Some throw down the
ladder by which they have risen, but the majority are not aware
that there ever was a ladder to climb. But human nature is the
same in all ages. If Columbus was ungratefully treated by
those he had benefited, so was Aristides before him. — It has
always been so, and will be so to the end, and it is no use to sigh
over what cannot be helped. Besides the traly great have
always resigned themselves to their lot, for they feel sure of the
future, and a lofty nature dwells rather on the past and the
future, than on the present, whilst a little mind has only just
energy enough to be absorbed in the passing hour, and cannot
disengage itself from the trifling gains or petty pleasures of the
moment, to look forward on what is to come. Now, to return to
our Music : — Some say that chromatic passages were not used
till about the end of the 13th century. M. Fetis complains that
the term Diatonic is incorrectly used when applied to modem
music, for Diatonic comes from two Greek words signifying
“ By Tones,” and what we call the Diatonic scale does not ascend
or descend entirely by tones. M. Fetis gives an oriental and

A FEW WOEDS ABOUT MUSIC.

two Celtic scales, neither of which are entirely composed of tones.
I do not know any music entirely devoid of semitones, for though
they are used sparingly in Gregorian musie, still they do occur.
I have a faint recollection of having seep somewhere, an account
of a scale formed from the old Scotch airs, in which the music
moves by tones and sharp seconds, which would give a gamut
devoid of half-tones. — “ Chromatic,” says M. Fetis, “ comes from
the Greek word Chroma^ colour ; and in fact, this succession of
semitones colours the music in a figurative sense.”

Towards the middle of the 14th century the science of Har-
mony received an impulse from some Italian musicians. Among
these, Francis Landino and James of Bologna were the most
distinguished. F. Landino, sumamed Francesco Cieco (the blind),
and Francesco degli Organi, on account of his skill in playing
on the organ, flourished between 1350 and 1390. After him we
find Dufay and Brinchois, two Frenchmen of the Flemish School,
and John Dunstable, an Englishman, who all flourished in the
early part of the fifteenth century. These Composers greatly
increased the stores of Harmony, and helped to lay the founda-
tions of modem science. The best things are always liable to be
most abused, and for this reason : — what is deep, and solid, and
strong, is capable of enduring more than what is weak and trivial.
The many, too, will always be caught by tinsel, and generally
prefer the shadow to the substance, the imitation to the original
idea ; or at any rate, the lower qualities of a great work of art to
its higher ones. And so one need not be surprised that Har-
mony, the most unearthly and mysterious of all the creations of
Art, had not long been made visible to the world, before she
came to be tampered with by those who were incapable of
appreciating her loftiest attributes. For even in the old romantic
times, so' dear to poets, there were not wanting those, who, while
they admired in her what is addressed to the ear (nay, some-
times, what appeals merely to curiosity, surprise, and vanity),
were deaf to that which speaks to the soul.

As early as the beginning of the 14th century the ecclesi-

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

astical character of the Gregorian Song was entirely destroyed by
the flourishes and quaverings introduced into it by musicians,
who saw in its majestic beauty only a vehicle for the display of
their so-called science. This was carried to such an extent, that,
in 1322, Pope John XXII. issued a bull prohibiting the use of
this style of music. The efforts of the Sovereign Pontiff appear
to have had but a short-lived success, for in a few years, we
find the evil increasing instead of diminishing, and the Church
music becoming more and more of a secular cast. The
blame of destroying the dignity of the Italian ecclesiastical
music rests chiefly on the Flemish Masters. The Flemings seem
to have ruled the musical world throughout Europe, during the
14th and lath centuries. Two of the most celebrated schools
for music in Italy, those of Naples and Venice, w'ere founded by
Flemings. The Pope’s Chapel was supplied by Flemish and
Spanish singers, and native talent so little cultivated, that few
Italians were then found capable of sustaining the leading parts
in a Missa Cantata of that day. The Flemish Masters delighted
in fugues and imitations, which they introduced into their
Masses, without paying any attention to the words which were to
be sung; in short, losing sight of dignity, propriety, and ex-
pression, in their anxiety to make an ostentatious display of the
science of the composer and the execution of the singers.
Those among my fair readers who are fond of pictures, will
remember that the Artists of the Low Countries, with a few
great exceptions, have ever been as remarkable for their excel-
lence in the lower, as for their deficiency in the higher walks of
Art. Certainly the fiats and fens of Holland would seem more
conducive to industry and mechanical skill than to imagination
and feeling. And though Belgium is many degrees better than
Holland in point of climate, yet there is a family likeness in the
two countries. We English partake of this dull character, too,
that is, among the masses — for it must be allowed than when an
Anglo-Saxon does happen to be of a poetical turn, he generally
soars high. Perhaps in no country shall we find talent and

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC

mental culture so unequally divided as in England. It is a mis-
take, though, to suppose that the English are peculiarly deficient
in musical talent. We have had composers of great genius and
science, from the first dawn of the Art. Not to go hack so far
as Alfred the Great and St. Dimstan, we may at least instance
Dunstable, in the 15th century; and in the 16th and 17th
centuries England was rich in composers, as the history of the
Anthem books of the Cathedrals and Collegiate Chapels bear
witness, It is true, many of these composers have owed their
finest ideas to Palestrina and his school, but there is enough
originality and fine taste among them to make good my
assertion. I have said that the Flemish Composers introduced
such an unmeaning quantity of ornament into their compositions,
as to deprive them entirely of that solemnity indispensable to
ecclesiastical music. So serious were the evils resulting from
this system, that it was deemed w’orthy of notice by the Council
of Trent, which sat between 1549 and 1563. At one time there
seemed a danger of all the stores of musical science being lost
to the Church, for the Pope ( Pius V.) threatened to forbid all
music being used in the offices, except the Plain-Song. Art was
saved by one of the greatest musical geniuses that the world has
ever produced Giovanni Pierluigi, surnamed Palestrina, from
the place of his birth, was, at that time, a young composer at
Kome, also a singer in the Pontifical Chapel, and Maestro-di-
Cappella of Santa Maria Maggiore. He was deeply afilicted at
the prospect of the ruin hanging over his beloved Art, and he
entreated Cardinals Vitellozo and Borromeo to obtain a delay
before the final decision was pronounced, promising to write
a harmonized Mass, which should not offend in any of the points
censured by the Pope. This was granted, Palestrina’s genius
triumphed, and Art was saved. The devout composer always
declared that his music was not his own, but as vivid a recol-
lection as he could retain, waking, of the Singing of the Angels
which he was permitted to hear in his sleep. On the 25th of
April, 1565, three Masses, composed during that critical interval

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

when the cause of Art seemed to hang upon a thread, were
performed before a congregation of Cardinals, and listened to
with astonishment and delight by all who heard them. The
idea of banishing figured music from the Church was given up
by the Cardinals, and a few months after the most beautiful of
the three Masses was performed before the Pope, and approved of
by him. In 1668, Pius V. issued a bull, decreeing, in conformity
with the decree of the Council of Trent, that the new Roman
Breviary, in its corrected and amended form, should be adopted
by all Catholic Churches; and in 1570 it was farther decreed that
the Mass should be sung according to the mode prescribed by the
new Missal.

These decrees rendered a thorough correction of the Choir
books necessary. Pius V. died in 1572, but his successor,
Gregory XIII., determined to carry on the reformation. He
summoned Palestrina, who was then Master of the Vatican
Basilica, and Composer to the Pontifical Chapel, and entrusted
the work to his care. Palestrina associated with himself his
pupil Guidetti, at whose suggestion he obtained from the Pontiff
leave to abridge the notation of the Tracts and Graduals, as also
of the Responsories in the Matins, as having become too long
now that the ancient practice of singing Matins, separately,
during the night, had been abandoned. Guidetti, in the course
of seventeen years, completed four works; The Directorium
Chori, The Office of Holy Week, The Passion, as it had been
sung from time almost immemorial in the Pontifical Chapel,
and lastly, The Prefaces in the Missal. Three years after the
publication of these works Guidetti died, 30th Nov., 1592 ;
having rendered great service to the liturgical song by his
careful and extensive researches to recover its true traditions.
During the fourth year of Palestrina’s and Guidetti’s labours,
there appeared from the press of one Peter Liechtenstein,
a native of Cologne established in Venice, the Gradual, the
Antiphonaiy, and the Hymnarium, corrected according to the
Missal and Breviary of Pius V. It is not known who was the

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

author of this great work, but Guidetti considered it to be so
well executed, as to render it unnecessary for him to continue
his laboui's upon the same ground, and this Venice edition was
.therefore adopted by the singers of the Pontifical Chapel.
Palestrina does not appear to have considered his portion of the
undertaking, viz. — the correction of the Gradual, superseded by
the appearance of the Venice edition, but continued his task for
more than seventeen years. Palestrina applied himself with
the zeal of one who had deeply at heart the majesty of divine
worship. “But having completed the first part,” says Baini,
•“ his pen fell from his hands, and, more wearied than Atlas
imder the weight of the sky, he abandoned his attempt, and at
his death nothing was found but the incomplete manuscript.”
A story most painful to tell is connected with the fate of these
MSS. Love and reverence for the memory of Palestrina would
make me avoid recording the baseness of one who bore his
name, did not the majesty of Truth demand impartiality at the
hands of all who venture to meddle, however slightly, ivith
historical facts. — On the death of Palestrina, his unworthy son
Igino, seized upon the imperfect MS., dishonestly procured its
completion, and sold it, as the complete work of his father, to
a bookseller for 2,500 scudi. The purchaser discovered the
fraud on submitting it to the superiors for approbation, and
brought an action against Igino, which he gained, and compelled
this ignoble descendant of a great sire, to take back the MS.,
and refund the sum paid for them. What became of the MSS.
is unknown, Baini thinks it may have fallen into the hands of
Giovanelli, a pupil of Palestrina, who is believed to have super-
intended the edition of the Gradual, that appeared in Rome,
from the Medician press, in 1614. This edition is now adopted
by the Pontifical choir, and is considered by Baini to be superior
to the Venice edition published by Liechtenstein.*

Palestrina’s death took place in 1571. He was interred in

• For this account of Palestrini’s labours I am indebted to an article in
“ The Dublin Review.’’

A FKW WOEDS ABOUT MUSIC.

St. Peter’s, near the Altar of SS. Simon and Jude. His funeral
was attended by all the musicians of Eome, and the “ Libera
me Domine,” composed by himself in five parts, was sung by
three choirs. Upon his coffin was this inscription : — “Johannes
Petras Aloysius Prsenertinus, Musics Princeps.”

Requiem seternam dona eis domine.

lo mi rivolsi attente al primo tuono,

E Te Deum laudamus mi parea
Udire in voce mista al dolce suono.

Tale imagine appunto mi rendea
Cio ch’io udiva, qual prender si suole.

Quando a cantar con organi si stea ;

Ch’ or si or no s’intendon le parole.

Dante.— (Purgatoria ix.)

CHAPTER XIII.

“Thrice blest whose lives are faithful prayers,

Whose loves in higher love endure ;

What souls possess themselves so pure,

Or is there blessedness like theirs i ” — Tennyson.

Palestrina’s predecessor, in the office of Maestro di Capella of
S. Peter’s, was Giovanni Annimuccia, a very devout man, who
was a penitent of S. Philip Neri. S. Philip, the illustrious founder
of the Oratory, is said to have been the inventor of the modern
oratorio. — Perhaps “ inventor ’’ is too strong a word; for the mira-
cles and mysteries of the middle ages, and the moralities of the
renaissance period, certainly originated the idea of which the ora-
torio is the development. S. Philip was a poet and a musician,
and well knew how to employ art in her highest office, that of the
handmaid of religion. He was w’armly seconded by his friend
and disciple, Annimuccia, who, as we are told by Bacci, “ went
every day to the oratory, to sing before the sermons, always
taking with him several singers.” Annimuccia composed hymns

A FEW WOBDS ABOUT MUSIC.

in parts, called Laudi, which were sung at the oratory, and after-
wards Selections from the Holy Scriptures were worked up into a
dramatic form, and sung, and this was the beginning of the
modem oratorio, though it did not receive that name for full a
century after S, Philip’s death. It is singular that the oratorio,
bom under the sunny sky of Italy, should owe its growth and
maturity to Saxon culture. For, certainly, it is Handel and
Haydn, Spohr and Mendelssohn, who have brought the oratorio
to perfection, and we English may claim some credit for the warm
welcome we have given it. Handel is generally claimed as an
English composer ; and inasmuch as he wrote on English ground
and in the English tongue, and is said to have owed much to the
study of the works of Purcell, Wise, Croft, and others, the claim
is not so unreasonable as many of our similar demands. Our
Continental neighbours accuse us of believing that the world was
created for the exclusive benefit of England and the English !
The best Italian composers of oratorios are, I believe, Carissimi,
Stradella, Cimarosa, and Zingarelli. Carissimi was born at Rome
towards the close of the fifteenth century. Dr. Burney bears
witness to his genius, when, speaking of the twenty-two cantatas
by Carissimi, preserved in the collection of Christ Church, Oxford,
he says — “ There is not one which does not offer something that
is still new, curious, and pleasing ; but more particularly in the re-
citatives, many of which seem the most expressive, affecting, and
perfect that I have seen. In the airs, there are frequently sweet
and graceful passages, which more than a century and a half have
not impaired.” And again he calls them “archetypes of almost
all the arie di cantabile, the adagios, and pathetic songs, as well as
instrumental slow movements, that have since been composed.”
They furnish examples of melody and modulation, to the beauties
of which the greatest masters of modern times have added but
little. Carissimi’s oratorio of “ Jeptha” is a noble composition.
Handel has borrowed the chorus ‘Hear Jacob’sGod’ in “ Samson,”
from ‘ Phlorate filise Israel,’ a chorus in “ Jeptha.” Stradella, a
Venetian, and contemporary of Carissimi, composed an oratorio.

A FEW WOKDS ABOUT MUSIC.

called “ San Giovanni Battista,” which saved his life. Some bravos
hired by a Venetian nobleman to assassinate him, followed him to
Rome, and tracked him to the church of S. John Lateran, where
Stradella was conducting the performance of his oratorio, and
singing the principal part. The bravos were true Italians: the
music melted their hearts, they could not make up their minds to
kill the artist, and departed, leaving him unmolested. They
must have been of kindred nature to Don Rodrigo’s Capo de’
Bravi — the redoubtable Griso ! Another Italian oratorio of a
high and enduring character is “II Sacrifizio d’ Abraham,”
by Cimarosa, a Neapolitan, who was bom in 1754, and died 1801.
This oratorio was performed in the year 1793, and no other of
gi’eat merit appeared for a long time. Zingarelli, who was born
at Naples in 1752, and died at Paris 1837, is the next great com-
poser of oratorios on our list. His oratorio “ Las Destreuzione di
Gerusalemme” is one of the most striking compositions of this
class which the Italian School has produced. II Cavaliere di
Morlacchi, bom at Peragia, in 1784, composed an oratorio called
“ Isacco,” in 1817. In this composition he substituted for the old
form of recitative, a new method called declamazione ritmica. In
1824 he produced “ II Sacrifizione d’ Abelle,” in which his new
mode of singing was introduced with increased effect. The pre-
cise nature of this new recitative I do not know, but as it is said
that Handel imitated Purcell’s energetic style of declamation,
probably Morlacchi adopted the same manner. Both of the
above mentioned oratorios met with the utmost success, when
they were performed at Dresden. Many other Italian masters
have produced oratorios, and Scarlatti’s especially have great
merit.

After Palestrina and Carissimi, the following names occur, as
links in the chain of ecclesiastical composers down to our own
times : — Allegri, the author of the celebrated Miserere sung at
Tenebne, in Holy Week, at the Sistine Chapel, was born at
Rome, 1590, and died 1652 : Colonna, bom at Brescia, 1630,
was Maestro di Capella at Bologna. It was the opinion of

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

Dr. Boyce, that Colonna was Handel’s model for choruses,
accompanied with many instrumental parts different from the
vocal. Colonna was the master of Clari, one of the most refined
composers of the Italian school. Steffani, born in the territory
of Venice, 1650. While a chorister in a Venetian church, his
voice and manner attracted the notice of a German nobleman,
who took him to Barona, and placed him under Ercole Bemabei.
Steffani afterwards took holy orders and became an Abbe.
While yet a student he composed several masses and other
sacred pieces, which were performed at Munich, and the reigning
Duke of Brunswick (father to George I.) was so gi’eatly de-
lighted with them, that he invited Steffani to the court of
Hanover, and conferred on him the appointment of Maestro
di Capella. Besides operas and madrigals, Steffani composed
a great number of duetts for two voices, with a bass accompa-
niment. Handel paid them the compliment of professing to
have imitated them in the twelve “ Duetti di Camera,” com-
posed for Queen Caroline. Steffani was a man of diplomatic
talent, and was frequently employed in negociations with foreign
courts. He obtained a great pension, and the Bishopric of
Spigna was bestowed on him by Pope Innocent XI. About
1724, the London Academy of Ancient Music elected him
their President. He died at Frankfort in 1730 — his death
may be called sudden, for he only had the warning of a few
days indisposition.

Clari, born at Pisa in 1760, was Maestro di Capella of the
Cathedral of Pistoja, about the year 1695, the date of Purcell’s
death. The richest collection of his MS. works in England,
is to be found in the Museum at Cambridge. Durante, born
at Gmmo, near Naples, in 1693 (two years before Purcell’s
death). He studied first under Scarlatti, and afterwards under
Pasquini and Pettini, at Kome. He returned to Naples, where
he devoted himself to composition and tuition ; and to his prin-
ciples and instruction, the Neapolitan School owes its greatest
masters of the eighteenth century. He became Professor at

A FEW WOKDS ABOUT MUSIC.

the Conservatorio of San Onofrio, about the year 1715. He
wrote principally for the Church. His subjects are generally
remarkable for simplicity, but so well conceived, and so ably
expressed, as to produce a very impressive effect ; his duettos,
in particular, are admirably constructed. Durante died at
Naples, at the age of sixty-two, Durante’s music is tolerably
well known in this countiy. So is Mareello, as so many of
his compositions have been set to English words, and published
in a popular form. There is a sweet soothing flow of melody
in Marcello’s music which will always make him popular, even
among those who are not musicians. Marcello died in 1789.

Leo was bom at Naples, 1694. He and Durante studied
together under Scarlatti. Leo was one of the most sublime
composers Italy has produced. He did much towards the pro-
gress of art. He succeeded both in secular and ecclesiastical
music. In grandeur and conception of style, he has never been
surpassed, except, perhaps, by Handel, who himself was much
indebted to Leo for the method employed in the constraction
of some of his magnificent double chorases. Pergolesi, w'hose
immortal “ Gloria in Excelsis” is well known throughout Eng-
land, was born in 1704, died 1737. — That far-famed “ Gloria”
is one of those works of art which one may well call inspired.
In this composition we find a union of the most triumphant joy
mth the most gentle grace ; strength is not sacrificed to softness,
nor is refinement lost in vehemence. There is chastity without
coldness, grandeur without gravity, spirit without tumultuous-
ness, and over the whole is thrown an unearthly sweetness and
purity, as well as an unearthly dignity and power. One can
well imagine the heavenly song spreading through the chill air
of the wintry night —

“ Life’s circles widening round,

Upon a clear blue river,”

and the Angelic Host shedding upon the earth, not only the
light, but the veiy glow and fragrance of heaven.

Pergolesi studied under Grew, and afterwards received lessons

A FEW WOBDS ABOUT MUSIC.

from Vinci and Hasse. Being attacked by consumption, Per-
golesi was persuaded by bis first patron, Prince Stegliano, to
take a small house at Torre del Greco, close to the foot of
Mount Vesuvius. The Neapolitans have an idea that living
there, either kills or cures consumptive patients quickly. In
his last illness, Pergolesi composed his grand Cantata of “ Orfeo
e Euridice'’ and later his famous “ Stdbat Mater,” and Salve
Regina.” Soon after finishing this last offering to Mary, he
died, at the early age of thirty-three. Jomelli, a native of
Aversa, was bom in 1714, died in 1774. His name is well
known in England through the famous Chaconne, a perfect
gem of melody and harmony. Played even on a piano-forte,
which deprives it of its “ linked notes of sweetness long drawn
out,” there is in it a union of solemnity and sweetness which
carries the soul heavenwards. I have heard old musical ama-
teurs speak of the rapture they felt when they first heard this
ravishing air played at the theatre, as an interlude to in-
troduce the Ghost in “The Castle Spectre!” But to know
what the Chaconne really is, one must hear it played on the
organ in a cathedral. I have never heard it sung, but no doubt
the voices would produce the most enchanting effect. The last
of the Church composers is Pasiello, which brings us down to a
recent date, as he lived to 1816. I have omitted a great many
eminent composers in this chronological list, because I have not
at hand books of reference to give the dates of their births and
deaths. Cavi, Musetti, Casali,* Mazzoni, Porpora, Caffaro,
David Perez, are all classical composers, and Scarlatti and Hasse
are very great names. The School of Church Music, which
follows next, is that of Chembini, Mozart, and Haydn. There
cannot be two opinions among musicians as to the beauty of
the ecclesiastical compositions of these masters. One might as
well question the beauty of the Apollo or the Venus. But when

* Mr. Burns has published some selections from the works of Cavi, Mu-
setti, and Casali, which are very easy to execute, and especially suitable
for amateur singers and for small choirs.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

one comes to consider the propriety and fitness of such a style of
music for public devotion, there is much room for discussion.
For several reasons I cannot enter fully upon the subject in this
work.

It is worth remarking, however, that the theatrical style of
Church music came in print before the revolutionary outbreak of
the last century ravaged Europe. Since the suppression of the
monasteries and hospitals, and the sale of the lands destined for
their support, which has been permitted in countries still catholic,
Church music has declined on the Continent ; there are no longer
wealthy cathedral chapters able to support vast choirs and singing
schools, rich monasteries with great libraries, and means of giving
an elaborate and scientific education to young musicians, and an
asylum and place for pursuing their studies to poor eomposers of
talent. The conservatories have sunk, and true ecclesiastical
music seemed in danger of perishing in the first part of the
nineteenth eentury. Many illustrious prelates have recently
urged upon their clergy the necessity of restoring as much as pos-
sible the ancient Church music, and of banishing the theatrical,
sometimes even, profane music which has been allowed to take pos-
session of many continental churches. N ine years ago the Cardinal
Archbishop of Mechlin communicated with the Abate Baini,
director of the Pontifical Choir, concerning the possibility of
recovering the true form of the ancient Gregorian song. The
Abb6 Jannssens undertook the journey to Kome to collect in-
formation, and in the mean time, the best editions and MSS. of the
Roman song, that the north of Europe fumished, were diligently
examined and collected. In 1849, M. E. Duval, a pupil of the
Conservatoire of Paris, who for years previous, at the desire of the
Archbishop,* had been engaged in researches on this subject, was
sent to Rome, to compare the result of his labours with the best
Roman editions and the MSS. in the libraries of the eternal City.
He spent ten months in these researches, assisted by his colleague,
M. I’Abbe Jannssens. The results of these labours, which were
* Monseigneur Afire, the Martyr of the Barricades.

A FEW WOEDS ABOUT MUSIC.

examined by a body of ecclesiastics in 1849, has been given to the
public at a very moderate price, and are ;well worthy the atten-
tion of English musicians. In one of M. Jannssen’s works which
1 once saw, I met with beautiful melodies with an exquisitely
harmonized organ accompaniment. There were some airs (the
four Antiphones of B.V.M.) whose effect upon my mind I can ex-
press by no other language than the old word “ ravishing.” I
could imagine them the very music played by S. Cecilia. There
is a soft joyousness in some, a tender plaintiveness in others, and
a gentle grace in all, producing the most perfect expression of the
words that can be conceived.

Those who assert that the English are deficient in musical
taste, would do well to consider the deep debt which the science
of harmony owes to the English cathedrals and universities. I
allow that the amoimt of good they do to the cause of high art is
not proportionate to the means at their command. Much more
might be done at the public schools by cultivating vocal music
among the boys, and so enabling them to appreciate the choral
service ; and at the universities, certainly greater efforts might be
made than are made, to give music her proper rank as sister to
poetry. Still it is something that the Anglican establishment
supports such a class of musicians as the organists and singers in
cathedral and collegiate choirs. And good service to the cause of
art and science accrues to the world therefrom. Far be it from
me to undervalue this. The music of Tallis, Bird, Farrant, Pur-
cell, Nares, and the rest of the English school, is exquisitely
beautiful, and has served to keep up the traditional memoiy
of the ecclesiastical music of the sixteenth century. A chant often
attributed to Tallis is neither more nor less than one of the Gre-
gorian tones ; and let any one compare the music of Palestrina,
Carissimi, Cavi, Musetti, Casali, &c., with that of the English
church composers, and they will find that they belong to one
school. I have heard the English cathedral music objected to as
undevotional in character, by protestant dissenters, and even by

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

members of the established church, holding what are called “ evan-
gelical opinions ” The cause of this impression arises, I imagine,
from two distinct sources ; one is that of the coldness, and some-
times irreverence of manner, with which the choral service is
often performed. Though there is more external decency of late
years on the part of choristers than there used to be, yet they
appear generally to go through the service as if they would be
glad when the task was done. Then one often sees people going
to the cathedrals out of curiosity or mere love of music, not con-
sidering it as an act of worship. And lastly, the sight of the nave
left empty and useless, lay people sitting in canons’ stalls (the
episcopal throne is sometimes filled with ladies ! ) sight-seers
tramping up and down in the most irreverent way while service
is going on, and similar incongruities, give an air of unreality
to the whole thing. I can fancy the vials of Mr. Carlyle’s wrath
poured out upon the poor cathedrals, and their services designated
by some such complimentary title as “Flunkeydom of the dark
ages.”

But all those incongraities have nothing whatever to do with
the devotional character of the choral service taken as music, and
as music alone am I examining it. But I have heai’d persons really
fond of music say, that even if the choral service could be per-
formed reverently, it would still seem to them cold and formal.
This idea springs from their looking on congregational sing-
ing as the only method of making religious music an offering of
the heart ; they forget that prayer and praise can exist without
being expressed by the lips at all. If the sound of another’s voice,
or the sound of an inanimate musical instrument, have the effect
of lifting the soul heavenwards, and making it forget the cares
and vanities of this world, they produce the highest

and most perfect kind of prayer, and neither congregational sing-
ing, spoken prayer, nor sermons, could do more.

The oratorio has flourished of late years, more in protestant
than in catholic countries; perhaps because catholic composers

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

find in the functions of the church, ample scope for employing all
the resources of art, which the slender amount of ceremonial re-
tained by protestantism does not admit of.

Graun, Kappell-Meister to Frederick the Great, at Berlin, was
one of the first who brought the oratorio to perfection in Ger-
many. He wrote “Her Tod Jesus,” a work of great merit.
Haydn’s “ Creation” and “ Seasons” are so well known among us,
that we almost claim them as our own. Beethoven’s “ Mount of
Olives”* is well known, too, with English verses. Mozart’s
“Davidde Penitente” was performed in England for the first
time in 1843, at Norwich. Spohr is a truly great composer,
though his harmonies are sometimes too abstruse for an un-
cultivated ear. His most celebrated oratorios are “ The Last
Judgment,” “ The Fall of Babylon,” and “ The Crucifixion.”
Karl Lowe is better known in Germany than in England.
F. Mendelssohn is as celebrated in this country as in his own.
“ St. Paul” and “ Elijah ” are almost as popular as “ The Messiah”
or “ The Creation.”

I do not know how many purely English oratorios we have.
The only one I have ever heard of is Dr. Crotch’s “ Palestine,”
and all I know of it is one air, “Ye faithful few.” There is a
something in that air which wins upon you insensibly. You may
meet with many melodies more striking, many accompaniments
more elaborately harmonized, but there runs through this song a
touching plaintiveness united to calmness, that reminds one of the
repose of Greek statuary. There are many oratorios by German
composers of the present day, but none that hold the same rank
as those of Spohr and Mendelssohn.

* There is a chorus from it in Novello’s “ Select Organ Pieces,” well worth
the attention of amateur pianists.

A. FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

CHAPTER XIV.

EmigravU is th’ inscription on the tombstone where he lies ;

Dead he is not, but departed, for the Artist never dies.

Through these streets so broad and stately, these obscure and narrow lanes.
Walked of old the Master Singers, chanting rude poetic strains. — Longfellow.

Were it not better done, as others use

To sport with Amaryllis in the shade

Or with the tangles of Neoera’s hair? — Milton.

And old Silenus shaking a green stick
Of lilies, and the wood-gods in a crew
Came blithe, as in the olive copses thick
Cicadse are, drunk with the noonday dew;

And Driope and Faunus followed quick,

Teazing the god to sing them something new. — Shelley.

A sketch of the progress of Music would be incomplete
without some account of the origin of the Opera. Sacred
Dramas and Pastoral Plays, with Choruses or Hymns inter-
spersed, were common throughout Europe from a very early
period. In Italy, some parts of the Orfeo of Politiano were
sung in 1483, and from that time we find music employed in
Tragedies, Comedies, and Pastorals. But these pieces were not
Operas, for that term is applied only to Dramas which are en-
tirely sung. M. Fetis’ account of the origin of the Opera,
is as follows : — “ Music had been reduced to the symmetrical forms
of counterpoint, applicable only to the music of the Church
and of the parlour, when a number of literati and musicians,
among whom we distinguish Vincent Galileo, Mei, and Caccini,
conceived the idea of a union of poetry and music, in order to
revive the dramatic system of the Greeks, in which poetry was
sung. Galileo produced, in his attempt of these kind of pieces,
the Episode of Count Ugolimo which he had set to music. The
reception which this first play met with, determined the poet
Rinuccini to compose the Opera of Daphne, which was set to
music by Peri and Caccini, between 1594 and 1597. This work

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

was followed by Euridice, and both had great success. Such was
the origin of the Opera.”* Euridice was performed at Florence
in 1600, in honour of the marriage of Marie de Medici with
Henri Quatre. Emilio del Cavaliere, a Roman noble and ama-
teur, composed a kind of oratorio, called “ Rappresentadone ddV
Anima e del Corpo," which was performed at Rome in 1600, on
a stage in the Church of La Varicella, with scenery, decorations,
and choruses after the antique, and even an attempt at classical
dancing. It must be remembered that this was a sacred drama,
and the dancing was probably defended on the ground of the
religious dances of the Jews, and the example of King David.
The admirers of the noble composer asserted that he had re-
covered in his recitative, the ancient Greek dramatic song.
This strange exhibition (which would have shocked a monk of
tlie middle ages quite as much as it would shock us in the
nineteenth century), took place when the renaissance period was
in its gloiy. The famous pictures in the Louvre, descriptive
of Marie de Medici’s bridal, which Reubens painted about the
same time, give one a specimen of the perverted taste of that
period. Classic literature and classic art had not long been
recovered, and many of those who gave themselves up to its
fascinations, appear to have become intoxicated by that portion
of it which appeals to the senses, while they lost sight of all
that is high and pure in it, as well as of the truths veiled
beneath its myths. Dante and Raffaelle did not thus misuse
antiquity, but those who came after them did. “ To the pure
all things are pure,” and they who say with Tasso —

“ O Musa, tu, che di caduchi allori
Non circondila fronte in Elicona
Ma su nel cielo infra i beati Cori
Hai di stelle immortali aurea corona,

Tu spiri al petto mio celesti ardori.”

can tread with firm step the laurel groves and myrtle bowers
of Greece. But woe to those who dare “ the bright land of

• Fetis’ “Music Explained,” Chap. 10, Part 2, Boston edition.

A FEW WOEDS ABOUT MUSIC.

battle and of song,” without the shield of faith, and the breastplate
of chastity ! No wonder if such end in saying —

“I’d rather be

A pagan suckled in a creed outworn.

So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,

Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn,

Have sight of Proteus rising o’er the sea.

Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed hom,’’

In 1606, the opera was performed for the first time at Eome.
Claude Monteverde (famed for having discovered the hannony
of the Domitant, in 1590) composed his opera of “Orfeo” for the
Court of Mantua, in 1607, which was represented in the follow-
ing year. The lyrical drama was introduced at Venice in
1637, and at Naples in 1646, but Venice took the lead of all
other places. It will be remembered that in Shakspeare’s time,
Venice was one of the most fashionable and luxurious cities of
Europe. And it will occur to many of my readers, no doubt,
that one of the most beautiful passages on music, among the
many to be found in Shakspeare, is in “ The Merchant of
Venice.” In the opera of “ Euridice” (which was the second
written), one of the personages sings Anacreontic stanzas, which
may be considered as the origin of what is called an air. This
piece is preceded by a short prelude. The movements of the
bass follows those of the voice, which gives a heavy character.
In the recitative the bass frequently sustains its notes. In other
respects the model of the airs of the opera existed before in the
popular melodies which had been known time out of mind. Airs
took a more settled form in a musical drama of Landi’s, “ II Santo
Alessio,” represented at Rome in 1634. The airs of this epoch
are monotonous and cut into couplets, like our vaudevilles and
ballads. The same custom is found in all the operas of Cavalli,
who composed more than forty, and particularly in his “ Jason,”
represented at Venice in 1649. By a singular arrangement, all
the airs of this period were placed at the beginning of the scenes,
and not towards the close, as in modem operas.”* Towards the
* Fetis’ “ Music Explained.” Part 2, Chap. 16.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

end of the seventeenth century, a fashion came in of beginning
with a slow movement, continuing with a lively one, and lastly
repeating the slow movement entire. This has a good effect for
a ballad, and indeed the Troubadour poetry generally has a
refrain as in the following exquisite little song, written by
Thihaut, Count of Champagne, in the fourteenth centuiy : —

Las ! si, j’avais le pouvoir d’ouWier
Sa beaute, sa beaute et sonbien dire,

Et son tr^s doux, tihs doux regarder.

Plus n’ aurais mon martire !

Mais de mon coeur je n’en puis rien 6ter,

Et grand aifolage,

Mais tel servage,

Donne courage
A tout endurer.

* Et puis comment comment oublier
Sa beaute, beaut§ et son bien dire,

Et son trfes doux, trfes doux regarder,

Mieux aimer mon martire !

But in dramatic music a different treatment is required, and
after having expressed passion with vehemence in the second
movement, it has a cold effect to return quietly to the first move-
ment, as if it were a mere refrain or burden. “ Jomellif was the
first who perceived the necessity of ending with the four last
lines. This style of airs lasted till the time of Piccini and
Sacchini. Among the form of airs which had most success, the
rondeau holds the first place.” Its invention is attributed to
Buononcini, an Italian composer of the eighteenth century. At a
later period Sarti conceived the idea of the rondeau in two move-
ments. Paisiello, Cimarosa, Mozart, Paer, and Mayer, have
written many airs of a mixed character, composed of a slow
movement followed by an allegro. Rossini has adopted the plan

* I hold it true whate’er befall ;

I feel it when I sorrow most ;

’Tis better to have loved and lost

Than never to have loved at all. — Tennyson.
t Fetis.

A FEW WOEDS ABOUT MUSIC.

of making the first movement an allegro moderato, followed by
an andante or adagio, and terminating by a quick movement.
This lengthens the piece so much as to weaken the dramatic
action. A movement gradually increasing in rapidity is an
infallible means of reviving the attention of an audience, and
the imitators of Rossini, without his genius, frequently make use
of it to conceal the poverty of their ideas.* The first instance of
a vocal duett occurs in the drama of “ II Santo Alessio,” (1634).
The first terzetto is found in an opera by Logroscino, a Venetian
composer, 1750. Picciui carried concerted pieces to perfection in
his “Buona Figliola.” Mozart completed the musical revolution
by his wonderful trios, quartetts, sextetts and finales in the
“ Zauberfiote,” “Don Giovanni,” and “ Le Nozze di Figaro.”
“ Rossini,” says M. Fetis, ‘‘has not added anything to the form of
concerted pieces, but he has made improvements in the details of
rhythm, vocal effect, and instrumentation.”

Gluck, a composer of great genius, settled the form of the
French serious opera, towards the end of the last century.
Gluck was bom 1714. His brother was head forester to a German
prince. After leading the life of an itinerant musician for some
time, Gluck took some lessons of Martini, and became composer
in Prince Melzi’s establishment at Milan, where he wrote several
operas. In 1745, he was invited to England, where he composed
an opera called “ La Caduta de’ Giganti.” Thence he proceeded
to Copenhagen, in Germany, where he composed several works,
and zealously applied himself to repair the defects of his edu-
cation, both by the study of languages and by associating with
literary persons. In 1754, he again visited Italy, and in a few
years returned to Vienna, where he wrote his celebrated operas,
“Orfeo” and “Alceste.” He was invited to Paris, and in 1776
began the famous “Musical War” between him and Piccini,
which is so often alluded to in French memoii’s of the last century.
He left Paris to settle at Vienna, where he appears to have
enjoyed better fortune than generally falls to the lot of men

* Fetis,

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

of genius ; the concluding years of his life were more productive
of comfort to himself than of romantic interest to his biographers,
for he seems to have enjoyed a quiet, pleasant life, as well as a
great reputation, and finally died of apoplexy at the age of sixty-
three, leaving behind him a fortune of £25,000. Mozart was a
great admirer of Gluck’s, and paid him the highest of all compli-
ments, by making use of parts of his operas, as models worthy to
be followed. It has been said that Mozart alone has surpassed
Gluck in the serious opera. Gluck’s works are remarkable for
grand severity of style, deep expression, and poetic feeling. The
well known March in “ Alceste,” and the equally well known
“ Che faro senza Euridice,” will probably occur to the memory of
many of my readers, as examples of these characteristics. Cherubini
is another original composer of the last century who wrote at Paris ;
he was bom at Florence, 17 60. His church music displays great
genius, but is of an operatic cast. One of his compositions, the
overture to “ Les Deux Joumees,” is well knowm in England. It
is an admirable study for amateur pianists an'anged as a duett for
pianoforte. It is not necessary for me to particularize all the
great composers of modem times ; a mere list of their names
would be uninteresting and useless, and were I to attempt giving
a ciitical and biographical catalogue of them, even of the briefest
kind, it would swell this little work far beyond the limits to which
I am compelled to restrict myself. For the same reason I must
refrain from inserting the curious antiquarian information respect-
ing the invention and improvements in musical instruments,
which is to be found in M. Fetis’ valuable book. I hope the
extracts I have given from “ Music Explained to the World,”
may induce some of my fair readers to read the entire work.
The edition from which my extracts are taken is an American
translation, made for the Boston Academy of Music.

A FEW WORKS ABOUT MUSIC.

CHAP. XV.

Nothing useless is, or low,

Each thing in its place is best ;

And what seems hut idle show,

Strengthens and supports the rest.

Build to-day, then, strong and sure,

With a firm and ample base,

And ascending and secure
Shall to-morrow find its place.

Thus alone can we attain
To those turrets, where the eye
Sees the world as one vast plain.

And one boundless reach of sky. — Longfellow.

Full of long-sounding corridors it was
That over-vaulted grateful gloom.

Through which the live-long day my soul did pass
Well-pleased from room to room.

Pull of great rooms, and small, the palace stood.

All various, each a perfect whole.

From living nature, fit for every mood
And change of my still soul. — Tennyson.

Sovereign masters of all hearts !

Know ye who hath set your parts ?

He who gave you breath to sing,

By whose strength ye sweep the string.

He hath chosen you, to lead
His hosannas here below ;

Mount and claim your glorious meed ;

Linger not with sin and woe.

But if ye should hold your peace.

Deem not that the song would cease :

Angels round His glory-throne.

Stars, His guiding hand that won.

Flowers that grow beneath our feet.

Stones in earth’s dark womb that rest.

High and low in choir shall meet.

Ere his name shall be unblest. — Keble.

I shall conclude with a sketch of the history of the pianoforte.
This instrument may be deemed as an invention of the nineteenth
century, inasmuch as modem improvements have rendered a

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

first-rate pianoforte of the present day quite a different instrument
from the piano of the last century. M. Fetis says that the first
stringed instrument struck by keys, was the clavicitherium, which
had strings of catgut put in vibration by means of pieces of leather
operated on by the keys. Another ancient keyed instrument was
the virginal or virginals, familiar to us, as having been a favorite
with Maiy, Queen of Scots, and Elizabeth of England. Indeed,
it has been asserted that the instrument received its name in
compliment to the virgin queen ; but unfortunately for the truth
of this report, it so happens, that the virginal bore the same title
thirty years before the “ fair vestal throned in the west ” was set
up to be worshipped ! Henry VIII. was a good musician, and all
his children inherited talent for music. Mary had a love for the
art which amounted to a passion. Miss Strickland mentions that
her portraits (looked at with a phrenological eye) show the organ
of tune developed to an extraordinary degree. It is certain she
was a remarkably fine performer on the virginals. Poor Maiy
Stuart is often represented playing on this instrument. She cul-
tivated music highly, and excelled in it, as she did in every
graceful accomplishment. But probably the true reason of
painters' choosing to depict her playing, is, that the virginal looks
well in a picture. Sony as I am to admit a defect in my favorite
instrument, I must own that the form of the pianoforte is neither
picturesque nor even elegant. I am told that Mr. Lambert has
just introduced a gothic case for cabinet and cottage pianos, which
gives the instrmnent quite a mediaeval appearance ; but I fear the
ugliness of the horizontal grand pianoforte is past all cure. It
would defy the brilliant fancy and powerful pencil of Mr. Pugin
himself. And unfortunately it is the piano-forte par excellence,
except for that class of listeners who are able to hear with their
eyes. At the same time we must allow that recent improve-
ments * have brought the cabinet piano, if not quite on a level

* Mr. Lambert, who, while In the employ of Messrs. Collard, invented the
check action cabinet piano, has recently added another improvement, “ the
Repeater,” which is said to bring the touch and tone of the cabinet piano very
near that of the horizontal

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC,^

with the horizontal, still near enough’ to satisfy any but the
critical ear of an artist. The clavecin or harpsichord, according
to M. Fetis, is as old [as 1530. He says, “ This instrument, the
largest of the kind, had almost the form of our long pianos. It
often had two keys, which might be played together, and which
struck two notes at a time tuned in octaves. The strings of the
harpsichord were put in vibration by strips of wood, terminated
with a piece of quill or leather, and which were raised by touching
a key. The end of the leather fell as soon as it had touched the
string, leaving the latter free to vibrate. The spinet was only a
harpsichord of square form.” — (Oblong like our square pianos ?)
The harpsichord, spinet, and clavichord, continued in use till about
1785. M. Fetis traces the origin of the pianoforte to the Eastern
Psaltery. He says “ This was composed of a square box, on
which a thin pine board or tablet was glued ; on this tablet
strings of iron or brass wire were extended by means of pegs, and
tuned so as to give all the sounds of the scale. The performers
held in each hand a little rod, with which he struck the strings.
An attempt was made to improve this instrument, and from thence
sprang the clavichord, which consisted of a box of triangular
form, with a sound-board and pegs, to which wires of brass were
attached, and a key which operated on little plates of copper, by
which the strings were struck. It was this instrument which
afterwards suggested the idea of the piano.* As early as 1716,
Marius, a manufacturer at Paris, presented to the Academy
of Sciences for examination, two harpsichords, in which he had
substituted little hammers for the strips of wood used to strike the
strings. Two years afterwards, Cristoforo, a Florentine, improved
on this invention, and made the first pianoforte, which has served
as a model for those made since. It appeared that the first
attempts were received coldly, for it was not till 1760, that
Zumpe, in England, and Silbermann, in Germany, had regular
manufactories, and began to multiply pianos. In 1776, the
brothers Erard made the first instruments of this kind constructed
* Fetis, Part 2, Chap. 14.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

in Paris ; for until that time they were imported from London.
These pianos had only five octaves, and two strings tuned in
unison for each hammer. Afterwards the key-board was ex-
tended to six octaves and a half, and the number of the strings
was increased to three.

M. Fetis’s judgment upon the various schools of pianoforte
playing is too well worth quoting to he omitted. He tells us
“ One of the greatest difficulties in touching the piano consists in
producing a fine tone, by a peculiar manner of striking the keys.
In order to acquire this art, the performer must learn to restrain
the action of the arm upon the key-board, and to give equal
suppleness and strength to the fingers, a thing which requires great
practice. A good position of the hand and a constant study of
certain passages, executed at first slowly and with evenness, and
gradually increasing in rapidity, will, in the end, give this neces-
sary quality of suppleness. This, however, is not saying that the
art of drawing a fine tone from the piano is purely mechanical.
It is with this, as with every other art, its principle dwells in the
soul of the artist, and diffuses itself with the I’apidity of lightning
even to the end of his fingers.”

There is an inspiration of sound, as there is of expression,
of which it is one of the elements. M. Fetis divides pianoforte
playing (including the harpsichord) into three chief epochs.
First “ the legato style, in which the fingers of the two hands
played in four or five distinct parts on a plan of harmony rather
than melody. This epoch ended with John Sebastian Bach, who
had the finest talent of this kind which has ever existed. In
order to play, upon this system, a strong perception of harmony is
necessary, and all the fingers must be equally apt in the execu-
tion of difficulties.” M. Fetis adds “ that these difficulties are so
great, that few pianists of our days can execute the music of Bach
and Handel.” Bach’s fugues certainly do require a strong love
for harmony, a clear head and a great stock of patience while
reading them, hut the assertion that few pianists of our day can
play Handel, if it apply to France (which I doubt), certainly can-

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

not be said to apply to this country. There is not a cathedral
town in England, where you may not meet with organists who
can play Handel, and generally with amateurs who can acquit
themselves very fairly in the legato style. Most of the great manu-
facturing towns now possess music halls, with organs in them, and
some have churches where the full choral service is performed, as
at Leeds. In the catholic churches of England the music of
Palestrina and his school is beginning to be heard again, in spite
of the opposition of those who have been so long accustomed to
the melodious honeyed style of Mozart and Haydn, as to find the
severity of the old music “ harsh and crabbed.” At St. Chad’s, Bir-
mingham, and at the Church of the Apostles, Clifton, ( probably in
many other catholic churches) Palestrina is sometimes exquisitely
done. I can say nothing of the London churches, catholic or
protestant, as I have never been there on a Sunday, and indeed, I
have never heard any musical religious service in London, ex-
cept once, and that was in Westminster Abbey. Certainly the
music on that occasion was not to be compared with what I have
heard at Canterbury, Windsor, Lichfield, Salisbury, Gloucester,
Exeter, &c.

To return to our original subject. M. Fetis says that the
second school of pianoforte playing began with Charles Philip
Emanuel Bach, son of the great Sebastian. This school “ intro-
duced these combinations of the scales which for nearly sixty
years have been the type of all the brilliant passages for the
piano. After E. Bach came Mozart, Muller, Beethoven,* and
Dussek. dementi, an Italian by birth, pursued the same course.
His pupils, Cramer, Klengel, and a few others, brought this
second epoch to a close.

“The third epoch began with Hummel and Kalkbrenner. These
great artists, preserving all that was free and judicious in the
mechanical action of the preceding school, introduced into the

* In classing Beethoven with this school, I beg to say that I am giving
M. Fetis’ opinion, not my own. I hold Beethoven to be as distinct from
Mozart and Dussek, as from Sebastian Bach.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

style of the piano a new plan of brilliant passages, consisting in
the dexterity of taking distant intervals and in grouping the
fingers in passages of harmony, independent of the scales. This
novelty, which would have enriched the music of the piano, if it
had not been abused, completely changed the art of playing.
When one step had been taken in this boldness of execution, the
artists did not stop in their progress. Moschelles, in whom
suppleness, firmness, and agility of finger have been wonderfully
developed by labour, did not hesitate to encounter difficulties
greater than those of which Hummel and Kalkbrenner had given
the model. Herz* carried to a still greater height these perillous
leaps and rattling notes of the new school. The art of playing
the piano has at last become the art of astonishing. Thought is
no longer anything in the talent of the pianist; mechanical execu-
tion constitutes almost its whole merit. The folly of this direction
of the art has however already became apparent to men of correct
mind and of real talent.

“Moschelles, who possesses more ability than any other artist in
overcoming difficulties, has come to a stand in this career, and
for some time has devoted himself to the expressive style.
Kalkbrenner and Hummel have resisted the torrent ; it is probable
that they will find imitators, and that the art of playing the
piano will again become worthy of its origin.”

Thus ends M. Fetis, writing more than twenty years ago.
Real study and true love of art will enable a scholar to see farther
than the multitude.

Till old experience do attain
To something like prophetic strain.”

M. Fetis’ prediction has been accomplished. Henri Herz’s later
compositions bear witness to his having attempted to correct the
eiTors of his early style. Jacques Herz, who always excelled his
more popular brother in solidity and expression, has of late years

* I repeat I am quoting the opinion of another, for my experience would
t ell me that there is nothing in Moschelles or Henri Herz so difficult as some
passages of Hummel.

A FEW WOKDS ABOUT MUSIC.

produced some compositions which may rank with those of Cramer
and Hummel.

The new school, of which Thalherg, Benedict, Dohler, Listz,
Chopin, Schulhoff, Goria, Dreyschock, and Henselt, are the prin-
cipal stars, all, more or less, do homage to science and feeling, and
give execution a subordinate place. True, many of these com-
posers, for the sake of astonishing the musical world, or to gain
popularity, sacrifice high art too often. But indeed it may be
questioned whether most of them have power to do more than just
what they have done. And their compositions are so able and so
pleasing, that pianoforte players may well be thankful for them,
and not expect Mozarts and Beethovens to be bom every year.
Mendelssohn leaves us nothing to desire ; some of his concertos
would be heard with delight after one of Mozart’s. Mendelssohn
(I speak of him as a composer) has the sostenuto tone, and the
gracefully flowing legato passage of Cramer, united to the bold
effects of the new school, and in point of conception his music is,
of course, superior to that of mere pianoforte writers, who however
ingeniously they may weave together the ideas of others, cannot
give them that unity and fixity of purpose which good original
composition possesses. It is the difference between flowers grow-
ing in artificial beds in a garden, and flowers springing up in a
wood, where they harmonise with all around them. Henselt,
though one cannot claim for him the first of all gifts, invention,
presents the ideas of others in so novel a form, that one is tempted
to fancy one is hearing an original composition. His “ Gage
d’ Amour ” is a beautiful specimen of pianoforte music. It consists
of two movements, both together filling less than five pages ; but
it is like a short lyric, perfect as far as it goes. Trae, the melody
would be nothing stinking, divested of the accompaniment, but that
accompaniment is really a work of art. He may well call his piece
“ Poeme d’ Amour.” The expression is most powerful. Intense
feeling never flags from the first bar to the last; one hardly
observes the executive difficulties, because, as in a poem, one is
carried on by the irresistible force of the passion expressed, and

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

never thinks of the artist’s skill, till one begins to examine it
critically. The slow movement flows sweetly and gracefully, and
is remarkable for tenderness and gentleness. There is much skill
and originality shown in the mechanical details, which are so
managed, as to increase the tone in the melody, and keep the under
parts in their proper place.

The second movement, though not quick, is animated, and at
times impassioned. The bold arpeggios produce rich and un-
expected harmonies, and the modulation is exceedingly beautiful.
There is a regular, yet ever-changing movement about it which
bears the subject on, as a bark is borne over the waves of the sea,
expressing vuth more tmth than words can do, the restless, fluc-
tuating nature of the passion described. •

Henselt has written many short pieces of very interesting
character, and much easier to execute than his “ Gage d’ Amour.”
“ II Lamento,” and “ Sorrow in Happiness,” are most expressive
and plaintive songs without words. I have spoken of Dreyschock
already. His Nocturnes are very captivating, making up in grace
and feeling for what they want in originality. Schulhoff is a
composer of great talent, but writes too much for the multitude.
His “Galop di Bravura” and “ Carnival of Venice” delight the ears
and dazzle the eyes of a mixed audience, for there is just enough
solidity in them to please a musician at the first hearing, and a
variety of novel and ingenious passages, which appear much more
difficult than they really are, at first sight, even to a good pianist,
while the constant flow of gay melody, and the brilliance of the
executive work, fascinate and dazzle tliat numerous class, who
“ play a little” and know less. Schulhoflf’s “ Souvenir de Venice”
is a sweet flowing Nocturne, without one tour de force in it.
Fradel is an agreeable composer. His harmonies are rich and his
melodies well chosen. His music has the advantage of producing
a good effect without requiring great execution. Tliere are
several very easy short pieces of Fradel’s* lately published, which
would be found useful by amateur pianists who do not practice
* By Messrs. Cocks.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

regularly, and who have a difficulty in remembering long pieces.
Fradel resembles Blumenthal ; neither of them have any claim to
originality of idea, but they possess that fine taste which enables
a composer to select from good sources, and to treat what they
have selected in the best possible manner.

There is a duett of Fradel’s called by the fantastic title of
“ Pique-Nique Musicale,” which is particularly agreeable, both
to play and to hear. It is very easy, but requires finished play-
ing. Hear an indifferent performer play the tunes in Cramer’s
Instmctions, and then listen to the same airs played by one who
has that perfect control over the instrument which is necessary to
producing fine tone and perfect expression, ‘and you will admit
good execution is required, to give proper effect to the easiest
music. Space would fail me, were I to enter into a critical
account of all the composers of the day ; and the most eminent
are too well known to render it necessary. There is one whose
name I must not pass over, because the cause I have at heart,
viz., the advancement of musical knowledge among amateurs,
owes much to him. I allude to Mr. Sterndale Bennett, who
devotes himself to the classical school. Many of his compo-
sitions possess great beauty, but the one I find most fascinating
is the Capriccio, in D minor. The more one plays it, the better
one likes it, and after all, that is the tnie test of excellence. I do,
not say it would please those who prefer a set of M. Jullien’s
quadrilles to the overture to the “ Zauberflote,” but to those who
can appreciate harmony, this little gem, worthy of days gone by,
will always be heard with intense pleasure.

I vnll not conclude without expressing a charitable wish in
favour of those orders of society, who having fewer means of
enjoyment than others, should in a particular measure excite our
s\Tnpathy. Much might be done for them by affording them
opportunities of cultivating a taste for music. There are few who
have not the genn of that taste. Other tastes are more often
denied, and more difficult to acquire. Music is an innate love ;
pleasure accompanies every step in its advancement ; in its pro-

A FKW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

gross it opens the mind, for it awakens imagination and bids
thoughts flow. Classical music might be made a powerful instru-
ment in civilization and moral improvement. Eeligious music,
madrigal and motett singing, and chamber music, occupy the
mind, and interest the fancy without exciting that exhausting
degree of feeling which dramatic music does when enjoyed
thoroughly. Classical music acts, too, as a species of mental cul-
tivation. The study of Palestrina and Handel calls into action a
degree of mental power which may lie dormant while performing
or listening to the works of lighter composers. If any doubt the
capacity of the lower orders for enjoying music of a scientific cha-
racter, let them go into the nave of an English cathedral on a
Sunday afternoon ; there they will find crowds listening eagerly
to the sounds proceeding from the choir. Some, it is true,
go from mere idleness, and behave in a profane manner, but the
majority go for the pure love of music. It is evident from their
whole bearing that they do not look upon it as an act of worship.
As soon as the music ceases they walk about and look at the
monuments or anything else that catches their eye ; generally in
a serious, decent manner, but without any signs of devotion. As
soon as the organ is heard again, they throng towards the entrances
to the choir, and remain standing in a listening attitude while the
music lasts. The very difficulty the working classes find in getting
to hear good dramatic music helps to keep their ear unspoilt for
serious music. Those who accustom themselves to a variety of
highly-seasoned viands every day, have not generally so good an
appetite as those who live on plain fare. And in like manner
they who never hear the opera will enjoy the most keenly an old
madrigal.

That the working classes are really fond of music no one who
examines into the matter can doubt. The success which has
crowned the philanthropic efforts of Mr. Hullah,may be attributed,
perhaps, to his own talent and energy. But see how highly music
is cultivated in the manufacturing districts. In Manchester and
Birmingham good part-singing is quite common. The same may

100

A FEW WOKDS ABOUT MUSIC.

be said of many great towns in the north. A music- seller in a great
manufacturing town, told me, lately, that classical music sold
better among the operatives than among any other class; and not
long since, I heard a working man discuss the respective merits of
Haydn and Mendelssohn with a critical acuteness which many a
concert-going lady or gentleman would have found it difficult to
follow. In the rural districts music is sadly behind-hand. Still
one finds love for it there in spite of every possible disadvantage.
The bands got up among the labourers and artisans in villages
and little countiy towns, prove how deeply-rooted is the love of
music in the Anglo-Saxon race. These bands in some parts of
the country, go from home to home, at Christmas time, singing
and playing alternately, as long as people will entertain them.
Their performance, though rude and uncultivated, prove that
the gifts of voice and ear are not wanting among the English. I
have been told that wherever music is cultivated among the
labouring classes, drunkenness decreases. Meeting for the pur-
pose of practising part -singing is certainly a more harmless
recreation than meeting for the purpose of puffing forth tobacco
smoke and chartist or socialist clap-trap, as so many working men
do of an evening. Perhaps some of my fair readei's may ask
how it is possible for them to give any aid to the musical move-
ment alluded to. I answer, first by encouraging singing-classes,
both among rich and poor. Secondly, by interesting themselves
in the musical education of children in any charity schools * they
may be connected with. Thirdly, by studying classical music
themselves. And fourthly, by supporting and recommending such
periodicals as “ The Musical Times,” “ The Part-Song Book,”
“ The Parish Choir Book,” “ The Musical Miscellany,” and
similar works, which are put forth in the hope of diffusing sound
musical knowledge, and pure taste among all classes. What has

*Some good remarks on this subject have appeared in “The Lady’s Com-
panion.” The evils resulting from the had method of singing allowed in
infant schools is forcibly pointed out.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.

101

been may be again. It is no utopian day dream, this idea of
bringing high art within reach of the million. Poetry and music
once shed their glorious light upon lowly dwellings. Why should
they not shine upon us once more ?

“ Through these streets so broad and stately, these obscure and dismal lanes,
Walked of old the master singers, chanting rude poetic strains.

From remote and sunless suburbs, came they to the friendly guild,

Building nests in Fame’s great temple, as in spouts the swallows build.

As the weaver plied the shuttle, wove he too the mystic rhyme.

And the smith his iron measures, hammered to the anvils’ chime.

Thanking God, whose boundless wisdom makes the flowers of poesy bloom.

In the forges, dust and cinders, in the tissues of the loom.

And now what remains for me to say to those patient readers
who have accompanied me thus far. — Only this. — That I trust
many among them, who have hitherto regarded music as a trifling
amusement, may have gained from this little book, a truer idea of
its real nature. And that I may have had the good fortune to
unlock for some few the golden gates of the palace of harmony.
To them there will seem nothing unreal or strained in my apply-
ing to art, what he whom we have lately lost, has said of Nature.

“ When thy mind

Shall be a mansion for all lovely forms,

'Thy memory be as a dwelling place

For all sweet sounds and harmonies j Oh ! then

If solitude, or fear, or pain, or grief

Should be thy portion, with what healing thoughts

Of tender joy wilt thou remember me.

And these my exhortations ! ” —

Yes, Art as well as Nature offers sympathy to the lonely,
enjoyment to the care-wom.

102

A FEW WOKDS ABOUT MUSIC.

The “ Sky-lark” of Wordsworth is a type of High Art in all
her forms.

“ Up with me 1 up with me into the clouds !

For thy song, Lark, is strong ;

Up with me, up with me into the clouds !

Singing, singing.

With clouds and sky about thee ringing.

Lift me, guide me till I find

That spot which seems so to thy mind.

* « * »

Happy, happy Liver,

With a soul as strong as a mountain river.

Pouring out praise to the Almighty Giver,

Joy and jollity be with us both !

Alas ! my journey, rugged and uneven,

Through prickly moors or dusty ways must wind ;

But hearing thee, or others of thy kind.

As fuli of gladness and as free of heaven,

I, with my fate contented, will plod on.

And hope for higher raptures, when life’s day is done.

THE END

J. A. NOVELLO, PRINTER, DEAN STREET, SOHO, LONDON.

By the same Authoress,

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vr- -'. i‘*

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